Invading hell the oculus.., p.3
Invading Hell (The Oculus Gate Book 2), page 3
“It would raise too many questions?”
“Without a doubt.” She tucked the violin under her chin. “And now I must send one message to the Refectors and another to a certain giant who will do whatever it takes to keep his family safe.”
“Then I will take my leave.” Bartholomew pivoted and strode to the stairway. Once he had ascended out of her view, he retrieved the metal box from his pants pocket and set it on his palm. No doubt she would eventually betray him, but as long as he had this in his possession, he could defeat her, though with difficulty. Her only vulnerability wasn’t well known. Only he and the other keepers of her body were aware of it, and they were all dead, their souls wallowing in the abyss.
He pushed the box back into his pocket. While it was true that the violin would raise questions, a nondescript box in his pocket likely wouldn’t. No matter what happened, when the resurrection vehicle was chosen, he had to be ready to transfer the box to the new host’s body. As a real, physical relic, that was the only way it could leave hell and arrive safely on Earth.
Chapter Three
Ben leaped out of the angel cruiser, his grip on the parachute’s ripcord. The cold air nearly sucked his breath away, and the landing zone lay far below, out of view in the pre-dawn darkness. Jumping from a lower altitude would have made the stealth attack easier, but noisy propellers could alert someone guarding the city’s angel-worship temple.
His arms spread in freefall, he called into the helmet’s built-in microphone. “Kat? You with me?”
Her voice crackled in the speaker. “Look up.” Above, Kat copied his spread-eagle pose, almost invisible in her black, ninja-like outfit. “Race you to the temple.”
“Nope. We have to start steering now. Let’s deploy. You first, since I’m below you.”
“Aye, aye, Captain.” She pulled her cord. Her chute billowed and sent her zooming upward, at least in Ben’s perspective.
Ben pulled his cord. His parachute expanded, caught the air, and slowed his plunge, allowing him to get a better look at the ground, now in view. The temple’s spires, well off to the left, appeared as a trio of silvery lines.
As he manipulated the toggles to turn in that direction, the gusts buffeted his body, and the rifle and flashlight attached to his belt whipped against his thighs. He glanced back. Kat floated less than three seconds behind. Her own weapons and gadgets, including the computer pad she acquired at HQ, swayed on her belt.
When they neared their target, Ben scanned the area. As expected at this hour, no one occupied the well-lit temple grounds, either in the parking lot or the expansive lawn between the building and a small lake in front of the main entrance.
“Ben,” Kat said, “I saw someone run into the temple. No obvious weapon, but they might have an arsenal inside.”
“We’ll assume the worst. No telling how aggressive the angel sycophants might be.”
“Especially if they’re infused with a violence payload.”
“Right. I know how strong that stuff is, and I got only half a dose.” He gave the sky a quick scan. The cruiser was no longer in sight. “Trudy, when you drop Jack off at the bank, don’t hover around and wait for him. Leo and Iona will probably have hellfire on their heels, and they might need evac. You can pick Jack up when he’s got the key.”
“Yep,” Trudy said. “Already planned on that.”
“Should’ve known. Over and out.”
The temple’s spires now loomed immediately below, seconds away. Ben pulled a toggle once more, the parachute narrowly avoiding one of the sharp points. He landed feet first on the central building’s flat roof and ran out his momentum. Seconds later, Kat landed a few steps away.
Without a word, they removed their helmets, shrugged off their packs, detached rifles from their harnesses, and set everything on the roof, then reeled their parachutes into tight wads and stuffed them into the packs. Leaving the skydiving gear on the roof, they inserted earbuds, scooped up their rifles, and strode to a metal trap door. Kat pulled on the handle, but the door stayed put. “Locked.”
“No surprise.”
Kat unfastened the computer pad from her belt and tapped on the screen. Two seconds later, the door emitted a click. She grabbed a flashlight from her belt, flicked it on, and aimed it at the entry. Ben flung it open, revealing darkness below.
A steep staircase descended to a concrete landing next to a door that likely led to a corridor. Farther down, more flights of stairs switched back and forth into darkness. All clear so far.
Rifle in hand, Ben hustled down, Kat following after closing the roof access. When he reached the landing, he pulled the door open a crack and pushed the rifle’s barrel through as he peered out. In the dimness of a single ceiling light, the carpeted hallway appeared to be vacant.
“No one’s coming.” Staying in the stairwell, he closed the door. “Where are we on the map?”
Kat showed Ben the building’s layout on the screen and touched a room near the middle. “Here. Directly above the control center. It’s at basement level. Three floors below us.”
“Good. Secure this door.”
Kat tapped the screen. The door clicked. Ben pulled the handle—locked. “Perfect.”
Guided by Kat’s flashlight, they jogged down the next flight of stairs to another landing and stopped at the new level’s door. Footsteps pounded closer on the other side.
Ben whispered, “Secure it.”
“On it.” Kat tapped the screen once more.
Just as the door clicked, a man shouted from the hallway. “It’s locked.”
A woman called, “Punch in the code.”
As beeps sounded from the other side of the door, Ben and Kat scrambled down. “No worries,” Kat said directly behind Ben. “I locked all stairway doors on this side of the building and changed their access codes.”
He smiled. “You’re making this too easy.”
“It’s my job. After all, I am the brains in this duo.”
Ben lifted his brow. “Really? And all this time I thought I brought you along as eye candy.”
“Careful or I’ll program your earbud to play a two-year-old saying why every time you speak.”
“Ah, my wife. Brains, beauty, and bite. Gotta love it.”
“You’d better, Mr. Buff and Brave. We’re a matched pair.”
When they reached the basement level, they stopped at a single wooden door leading out of the stairwell. Kat unlocked it and pulled it open. Their heads low, they skulked into a hallway, illuminated by fluorescent ceiling lights, some flickering and buzzing. A tiled floor led to a dead end on the left. To the right, the hall widened into an open area with tables and chairs, enough to seat at least a hundred people. Vending machines lined one wall, and a counter with a few microwave ovens and coffee makers lined another.
Directly across the hall, a massive metal door stood with a wheel at the center, much like the vault door at angel headquarters that led to the Oculus observation room. Ben leaned his rifle against the wall, grabbed the wheel with both hands, and tried to turn it, but it wouldn’t budge. “What’s up with this door?”
Kat slid a finger across the pad’s screen. “It has multiple layers of security. I’m past the first one. Working on the second. Not sure how many more are behind it.”
At the far end of the open area, a door banged open, splinters flying. Two men and a woman barged into the corridor, barefoot and wearing black flannel pajamas. One man carried a broken table leg, and the others each held a kitchen knife. When they saw Ben and Kat, they marched toward them at a slow pace, their weapons raised in tight hands, twenty steps away.
Ben grabbed his rifle and aimed it at the trio. “Halt, or I’ll shoot!”
Unflinching, they continued their steady march—fifteen paces away.
He whisper-shouted toward Kat. “Get that door open!”
She furiously tapped on the pad. “Second stage unlocked. One more. I think.”
The three drew ever closer, their blank stares making them look like zombies. Ben fired at the leg of one of the men. The bullet smacked into his thigh and zipped through, striking the carpet on the other side. He halted, dropped the table leg, and stared blankly as blood pooled at his feet.
“It’s like he feels no pain.” Ben fired at the other man, this time aiming at the body. The bullet ripped into his chest, making him stagger back and fall. Screaming, the woman lunged with her knife. Ben dodged, flipped the rifle around, and bashed her in the head. The blow knocked her against a wall. Her eyes rolled upward toward her bleeding brow, and she slid to the floor, likely dead.
A dozen more men burst into the hallway at the far end, most carrying shotguns. Dressed in military camo, this group was ready for battle.
“Kat,” Ben said with a sharp whisper, “it’s now or never.”
“Got it.” The vault clicked. Kat tucked the pad under her arm and shoved the wheel counterclockwise, face tight, muscles straining. “It’s opening.”
Ben aimed the rifle at the charging men and squeezed the trigger. A hail of bullets mowed down three in front, but the others tromped over them.
Kat heaved the door open. “Go!”
A gun sounded. Ben and Kat dove through the opening as buckshot pelted the metallic door above their heads. Ben leaped to his feet, reached back into the hall, and pulled the massive door closed just as a shotgun blasted another round. Darkness reigned except for the glow from Kat’s computer pad as she slid a finger across the screen and Ben turned the inside wheel. When another click sounded, she breathed a sigh. “Single-level lockdown. Let’s hope they can’t override it.”
Something pounded on the door, followed by a garbled shout and the sound of thudding footsteps fading down the hallway.
Kat bent her brow, barely visible in the screen’s aura. “Think they’re soulless? Guarding the place instinctively?”
“Yeah. They seemed kind of haphazard.” Ben looked at the dark ceiling. “Can you get us some lights?”
“Probably, but first things first. I’m triple locking this door with new passcodes.”
“Good thought.” Ben touched his earbud. “Jack? Trudy?”
“Here,” Trudy said. “Jack’s busy hovering this flying beast to drop Leo and Iona off. We’re still learning this ship’s tricks. Besides, it’s windy out here.”
“Okay. Just letting you know we’re inside the temple. Locked in the central computer vault. Three people attacked us, then a second wave. Maybe ten or twelve. They all seemed like mindless zombies.”
“Any weapons?” Trudy asked.
“The second wave had shotguns. And the first three were in pajamas. No firearms.”
“Pajamas? Are you saying alien creatures dwelling inside soulless humans wear pajamas?”
“Exactly.” Ben grinned. “We can take a set of PJs off a corpse in the hall if you’re interested. She’s your size.”
A laugh rode Trudy’s reply. “Only if they’re bloodstained. I want to look like I earned those sleepers.”
“I can arrange that.”
“Speaking of corpses …” Her tone turned serious. “This place is a ghost town. Not a soul on the streets. By this time in the morning, we should at least see delivery people running around.”
“What do thermal scans of the buildings show you?”
“A few warm bodies here and there. That mass exodus we monitored yesterday must’ve included ninety percent of the population.”
Ben drew a mental picture of zombies marching out of the city while the unaffected citizens hid in dark rooms. “So everyone who stayed behind is holed up. That’s not a good sign.”
“We’ll figure it out soon enough. Leo and Iona have boots on the ground now, and they’re moving into position near the bank’s front door. Jack and I will land on the roof in about thirty seconds.”
Ben eyed Kat’s fingers as they continued racing across the computer pad. “Do you have a scan of that building yet?”
“Yep. One warm body. Probably a security guard.”
“Good. If the plan works, it won’t matter how heavily armed the guard is. Then Jack can go in alone to get the key while you keep an eye on Leo and Iona. Make sure they’re safe.”
“We already agreed to that, Mother Hen, but thanks for the advice.”
Ben let out a huff. “Mother Hen? Now you’re sounding like Leo.”
“Good guess. He called you that before we dropped him off. And he’s listening in, by the way. So’s Iona. Remember, if we detect someone hacking our frequency, we can switch to our version of Morse code.”
“But Leo and Iona don’t know that code.”
“Iona does. Barks taught it to her when he commissioned her as a spy for us. She said she’d teach it to Leo. If he knows traditional Morse, it won’t be hard to switch.”
“Yeah,” Ben said. “Should work. They need to be in the loop for everything.”
“Agreed. We’re all family now. Gotta go. My turn to fly this angel buggy. See you soon.”
“Yeah. See you, Sis.” Ben blew out a sigh. Indeed, they were all family now. And sending them on a dangerous mission felt like leaving his own children on a minefield with sharpshooters all around. But they weren’t children. They were warriors. If only he could picture them that way all the time.
“Got it.” Kat made a louder tap on the screen. “We’re triple-locked in. But no light controls. They must be manual.”
“Then we’ll do this the old-fashioned way.” Ben snapped a flashlight from his belt, turned it on, and scanned the wall with the beam until it swept across a bank of switches. He walked to the wall and flipped them on.
Ceiling fixtures flashed to life, revealing a massive chamber with a concrete floor. A giant screen hung on the far wall, and a long desk stood in front of it, as well as a trio of computers and wheeled chairs, much like the vault control stations at angel headquarters.
Kat withdrew her master access key from a pocket and strode to the desk’s central computer. “Let’s check the first level and see what we’re up against.”
While she booted the computer and tapped on the control station’s keyboard, Ben scanned the walls adjacent to the huge screen. Thousands of books and other media weighed down shelves from the floor to the twenty-foot-high ceiling. This place was probably a repository for temple information, or esoterica, as Iona called it, before they transformed the place into a computer room.
The big screen turned on, displaying hundreds of squares. Each showed a different city scene within its frame, early morning sun making the details clear. “Camera views?” Ben asked.
Kat nodded. “The first level is a security monitoring system. Looks like the angels installed cameras all across the city.”
“Any idea how deep into the system it will let you go without the second key?”
“I’d say ankle deep. It’s not budging.” She leaned closer to the monitor. “Wait. There’s a square for a thumbprint.” She pressed her thumb against the screen.
A voice emanated. “Access granted for Queen Laramel. Enter security key for further access.” A new scene filled the wall display, the dawning sky with the familiar eye-shaped ring of stars.
Ben whispered, “The Oculus Gate.”
Kat nodded. “Too dim to see with the naked eye, but it’s still out there, like you suspected.”
“That means they were monitoring it here as well as at HQ.”
“At least Laramel was when she visited the temple.” Kat’s eyes darted as she studied the smaller monitor at her station. “I see lots of readings. Looks like brightness of each light, signal variations, color fluctuations, etcetera. And by the looks of the data, the focal points are strengthening. Not fast, but it’s noticeable. The same thing happened when the Refectors were getting ready to come through the gate.”
“Just what we need. Yet another alien species invading Earth to destroy us.”
“Or possess us.” Kat tapped on the keyboard. “Let’s go back to the cameras and see if we can find Iona and Leo. Maybe we’ll get a clue to what the Refectors are up to.”
“It won’t be hard spotting Iona’s fiery red hair. She’s wearing pigtails again for her innocent-little-girl persona.” The screen switched back to the matrix of camera feeds. Each displayed a three-digit numeral in the corner. Near the middle, two figures moved. “There.” Ben pointed. “Number zero, nine, six.”
“Got it.” After a few more keystrokes, that square’s feed filled the screen. Iona, dressed in oversized military camo, crept toward a marketplace square with Leo at her side. As usual, the tall huntsman wore a long cloak as dark as his thick hair.
Kat settled back in her chair. “Let’s see what they find.”
Chapter Four
Iona peeked around the end of a brick wall. Across a vacant plaza, the three-story bank stood between a delicatessen and a drug store. She pulled back and looked at Leo as he leaned his tall frame over to keep his head below the top of the wall. After a shave and a collar-length trim of his normally unruly mane, he looked presentable, at least for a trail-weathered huntsman. “Are we sure this is the right bank?” she asked. “It’s a small branch.”
“Positive.” Leo set his plasma rifle against the wall and peered over the top for a moment before looking at Iona again. “Hiding a valuable key at an offshoot branch is more secure. Who would think to steal it here?”
“Apparently we would.” Iona scanned the sky. The hovercraft flew in a slow orbit a few hundred feet in the air, probably waiting for them to make their move. “Does your superpowered nose detect anything?”
Leo inhaled. “I smell humans. No one close, though.”
“Good. Let’s notify air support.”
Leo touched his earbud and spoke softly. “Jack. Trudy. We’re in position.”
“Roger that,” Trudy said. “We’re seeing three warm echoes inside now. Stay safe.”
