Sett strode from the jailhouse and beelined it to the domed Disgronifying Station at the other end of the Academy.
He pulled up the travel logs for the past twenty-four hours. As expected, he saw the names of Pontos, Jason, and the other two missing soldiers.
“Craptastic,” he muttered, and headed back to his office.
When Sett returned to his office he found me waiting for him in the outer lobby.
“What are you doing here?” he growled.
“You asked to see me, Sir,” I answered, following him into his office.
“Okay, I see you. Now scram. I got work to do.”
“That’s it?”
Clearly pre-occupied, Sett plopped down at his desk and began shuffling through stacks of papers. He looked back up at me. “I told you to beat it.”
“You’re not going to arrest me?”
“I will if you don’t get out of my face, Cadet. Can’t you see I’m busy?”
“We got Cadet Virgil back,” I said, ignoring his order to buzz off. “He was in pretty bad shape, but he’ll be all right in time.”
“I know. I saw Captain Volk.” As an after thought he mumbled, “Good job.”
“Did Captain Volk tell you what we saw down there?”
“A big-ass fortress crawling with Anteros scum and fear demons. So what?”
“So, um, what are we going to do about it?”
“Nothing,” he said, swiveling to access his computer, turning his face from me.
“But Hamanaeus is preparing a huge army, fear demons and everything.”
Sett spun back around and slammed his fist down on the desk. “My hands are tied, Cadet. I can’t do a damn thing without the judges’ approval, got that?”
“But did you try talking to them, Sir?”
“Of course, I did. They are fixated on these damn Solow Accords. They are bat blind and won’t listen to a word I say.”
“I spoke with Virgil. He said that Hamanaeus has no intention of keeping up his side of the bargain. They want up here only to take over down there.”
“Let him try.”
“You can’t mean that!”
“Every word, Cadet. Hell, he couldn’t do a worse job than we already do.”
“But it’s more than that, Commander,” I said urgently. “Virgil said Hamanaeus doesn’t just want to take over Heaven, he wants to annihilate it. He wants to create a new Heaven on Earth.”
“Cadet, I told you, the judges aren’t hearing any of it. Not from me, and certainly not from you or Captain Volk.”
“So that’s it?” I said. “You’re just going to quit? Give up? That’s not the Commander Sett I know and respect.”
Sett swiveled back to his computer. “Yeah? Well get used to it, kid. And if I turn around again and see you standing there, I got three vacancies in the stockade. Got that?”
“Yes, Sir,” I mumbled.
I turned to leave, but not before catching a glimpse of the file Sett had brought up on his computer screen. It was Lieutenant Jason’s. I listened in on the commander’s thoughts as I exited. It was a string of f-bombs and curses. I smiled to myself. Swearing never sounded so sweet.
34
Grace under Fire
“What happened here?” Volk said, stepping between two cupid construction workers and into Grace’s office.
“Our little friend, Kohai,” Grace replied, standing in the center of the room watching news footage from media outlets around the human world on her wall-sized screen. Some thirty different news channels were displayed with closed caption in each country’s own language. She could read them all, of course.
“Kohai did that?” Volk said, surprised.
“Not directly. Commander Sett called the SWAT team in to arrest him and they broke down the door. Sett said he’d send a team to come fix it, and here they are. At least the guy keeps his word.”
Volk sidled up beside Grace and observed the screen with her. Every country on Earth was up to its eyeballs with problems—civil unrest, strikes, terrorism, war, rampant inflation, political scandals, soaring crime rates, gang warfare, rape, drug abuse, alcoholism and suicides…
“Just another day?” Volk said.
“No, it’s getting worse and worse.”
“What’s your prognosis, Doctor?”
“Bleak to horrific,” Grace replied flatly.
“You don’t seem too concerned.”
Grace shrugged. “What can I do about it? I’m just a celestial, and the humans are hell-bent on going over the falls.”
“A celestial can do a lot,” Volk said, observing her closely. “A celestial has access to departments and information most cupids don’t.”
“So?”
“Never underestimate the destructive power of a bureaucracy.” He gestured towards the news feeds. “Look at the mess it has created down there. The bigger the bureaucracy, the smaller the individual. Staff it with unelected ideologues with no accountability and no respect for a nation’s constitution or the rule of law, and inevitably you get—” He nodded towards the screen. “That.”
“I still don’t see your point,” Grace said, suspicious, and growing impatient with what was sounding more to her like insinuation than explication.
Volk elaborated. “On top of that sordid situation, add multitudes of the ill-informed and indoctrinated, or in our case, cupids and celestials, led by corrupt or clueless leaders who refuse or are unable to distinguish between right and wrong, ethical and evil, just and jaundiced, and can we expect anything but tumult, turmoil, and tyranny?”
“Captain,” Grace said, crossly folding her arms. “Save your exhorting and annoying alliterative admonitions for someone who hasn’t heard it all before.” She huffed, switched off the flat-screen wall, and said demandingly, “What is your problem?”
Volk snatched Grace’s arm and dragged her to the alcove at the back of her office.
“What are you doing!” she squealed.
Volk didn’t reply. Instead, he yanked her close and wrapped her in a tight embrace with his left arm. With his right arm out, he went into turbo-spin. Grace’s shrieks trailed off into oblivion.
The two construction workers, interpreting Grace’s shrieks as office sexcapades, exchanged smirks.
“Didn’t think the old fart had it in him,” snickered the first.
“Yeah,” the second whispered back. “The lucky dog.”
Volk floated down and set Grace against a tree by the shore of the same lake he had brought her to before. He sat on a big rock and waited for her to come to.
A minute later she blinked back into consciousness. She looked around, disoriented.
“Where are we?” she asked, recalling her anger.
“The other side of that lake I brought you to before. I thought you’d like the view better from here.” He gestured towards the setting sun.
Grace slowly rose, steadying herself with the tree. She gazed across the lake at the beauty of the glowing orange ball reflecting off the tranquil waters.
“What, no picnic this time?” she said, irked.
“No, and this time I’m asking the questions.”
“What’s the matter with you?” Grace said, her ire giving way to concern. “What happened down there? Are Kohai and Virgil all right?”
“Fine. Virgil will need some time to recuperate, but he’ll be okay.”
“Why are we here?”
“I said I will ask the questions. How long have you been working for Anteros?”
“What? How dare you—?”
“Cut the crap, Grace. I can read your mind. You assisted Anteros. I want to know to what extent.”
“You can read my mind?” she exclaimed indignantly.
“Yes, so don’t lie to me.”
“That’s-that’s…indecent!”
“It can be,” Volk affirmed. “But I’m not interested in your fantasies, or anyone else’s. The code I live by doesn’t permit me to hangout in others’ heads. Besides, trust me, m
ost minds are not that interesting. But, finding the truth does interest me.”
“I did help Anteros,” she admitted defiantly.
“Why?”
“Because just like you, I didn’t like what was going on up here. Hamanaeus promised change. He promised he would fix things. And I believed him. But I don’t anymore.”
“You don’t what?”
“Believe him or work for him,” she said. “I stopped.”
“When?”
“If you must know, soon after meeting you. Satisfied?”
“No,” Volk said. “You met him?”
“Never, but I arranged for our disgronifiers to secretly bring him up.”
“Who brought Hamanaeus to your attention in the first place?”
“My predecessor, Celestial Demeter. Before she left to join him, she recommended me to the Academy.”
“But we were told that Demeter was killed by an Idol Yetzer during a fact-finding mission on Earth.”
“It was a fabrication, part of her plan to defect.”
“Did Minos know about it?”
“I don’t know.”
Volk scanned her thoughts. She was telling the truth.
“Is Minos in on the conspiracy?” he asked, narrowing his questioning.
“I don’t know that either. He never mentioned Hamanaeus or Anteros to me. I only know that he truly believes that he can work a deal with them.”
“How large is the network up here?”
“Much bigger than anyone imagines.”
Volk nodded gravely. “Kohai and I saw a lot of ex-cupids inside the Anteros fortress. How long have they been recruiting from us?”
“For a while, but it really picked up over the past few decades as more and more cupids began to read the tea leaves and see to whom the future belonged.”
“Why didn’t you come to me with this earlier?”
“Because…I was afraid to,” she said. Because I had fallen in love with you, you big, dumb oaf!
Volk’s befuddled expression told Grace that indeed he could read her mind.
He cleared his throat. “Does Anteros know about your change of heart?”
“If I told them they would kill me. They are very close to completing their operation. Their army is as big as ours now, and they will stop at nothing to protect themselves from being discovered.”
“How many here know of your ties to Anteros?”
“Here, no one. Not by name or face anyway.”
“I want the name of every cupid and celestial traitor involved in the plot,” Volk demanded.
“What about me?” she exclaimed. “If Anteros learns that I have been compromised, they will kill me!”
“You should have thought of that a long time ago,” Volk replied coolly.
“You don’t care?” she said, stunned by his stony-hearted lack of compassion.
“Not anymore,” Volk said. “You betrayed us. You betrayed me.”
“You’re lying!” she cried, her eyes welling. “I can’t read your mind, but I know you are lying. You are not this cruel. You care about me, Captain. I know you do!”
“Did,” Volk corrected. “I want that list, and I want it today. We are out of time, Grace. We are talking about the end of the world, and the end of Heaven.”
“I know, I know,” Grace blubbered, slinking down against the tree, her face in her hands. “I was misguided. I was wrong and stupid. But I’m different now! You must believe me. I have done what I can to slow things down, to sabotage the system. I was wrong, but, but…”
She began to weep, unable to speak. I was wrong, my Captain, but I’m not bad. I’m not bad…
Volk knelt beside her. The celestial dropped her head onto his shoulder and soaked his sleeve with her tears.
“No, Grace, you’re not bad,” he said tenderly. “But it is not me you need to convince. It is not my forgiveness that you require, but His.”
Grace pulled back and looked searchingly into Volk’s eyes. “Tell me what to do!” she said. “My life is worthless now. I don’t care what happens to me. Without you, without Him, I don’t want to go on. Tell me how to make up for it all. I’ll do anything!”
Volk cradled Grace in his arms and stroked her soft hair. “I don’t know what we can do,” he said softly, “but we must try everything. It’s just you, me, Virgil, and Kohai, and we are outnumbered thousands to one. But we must try.”
Grace sat up and wiped her tears with the palms of her hands. “Sett,” she blurted, hope in her voice. “Maybe we can still change his mind. I saw him. He helped me. He knows, deep down, he knows the peril we face.”
“Sett knows,” Volk allowed, “but he is loyal to the Academy. He will never—”
“You said everything! Go to him, Captain. Talk to him. We have nothing to lose anymore. Sett has influence. He has respect. He has a soul, Volk. I saw it. You must try!”
Volk nodded. “I’ll talk to him.”
“And Captain Cyrus,” she said. “Isn’t there anything he can do from down there?”
“He’s on a different plane, Grace. He can’t battle what he can’t see.”
“I realize that, but our worlds intersect,” Grace said. “We feel the consequences of their actions, and they ours. Anything he can do down there on our behalf will affect us in some way, right?”
“Yes, but I don’t know what that could be, other than doing all he can to bring forth the Swerver.”
“Do you think the Swerver is still active?” Grace asked, grasping for a shred of hope.
“Maybe. We’re not sure. Even so, the Swerver is oblivious to us and our problems.”
Grace said, “Next week Minos and his entourage are meeting with Hamanaeus to put the finishing touches on the Solow Accords. We have to stop them.”
“It’s a done deal,” Volk said, “and Hamanaeus knows it. He knows that as soon as Minos sees the size and power of the Anteros forces he’ll sign anything. And with Judge Laban out of the way, there is no one to oppose either of them.”
“What if I were to be a part of his entourage? I could arrange that.”
“And do what?” Volk said, suspicious.
“I told you,” Grace answered, icy resolve in her eyes. “Whatever it takes.”
“Forget it, Grace,” Volk said with finality. “There’s nothing you could do to stop this process. If you were to eliminate any of the players, another would just take his place.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?” Grace said in exasperation.
“For the meantime, you get me the names of every traitor among us. I’ll talk to Sett, and discuss the matter with Kohai and Cyrus. With God’s help, I’ll think of something.”
Grace nodded and looked up into Volk’s eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve made a mess.”
“If it weren’t you, it would have been someone else.”
Grace shook her head. “That’s no excuse. I should have come to you and Captain Cyrus a long time ago. I always knew that you two were different.” She smiled wanly. “I didn’t know how different, but I could have tried to find out. And now it’s too late…”
“It may be too late,” Volk said, “but that isn’t for us to decide. HaShem will make that call. If it be His will to end this enterprise, then so be it. Meanwhile, we must work on the assumption that if we act in good faith and do all that we can, perhaps we can merit His mercy. Now, before I take you back, is there anything else I should know?”
Grace shook her head. Then remembering something, her hand flew to her mouth as her eyes widened in alarm.
“What is it?”
“Professor Hermes,” she said. “I recently picked up chatter that he might have switched sides.”
“The spleen guns,” Volk said, immediately grasping the threat.
Grace nodded. “Captain, weapons like those in Anteros’s hands…” She didn’t have to finish the sentence. They both knew the disaster it spelled.
“Is Hermes still here?” he asked.
; “I don’t know. He stays cooped up in his lab. If he were missing no one would notice for weeks.”
Volk pulled Grace into his arms. “If he’s still here then we have to stop him immediately.” He went into a high velocity whirl and spun Grace back to her office.
Volk and Grace stepped out of the alcove they had disappeared into just as the two cupid carpenters were finishing putting away their tools. They looked up, and noting Grace’s disheveled appearance, exchanged lecherous grins.
As Volk strutted towards them on his way out the door, they gave him knowing smirks and a thumbs up.
Passing between the two cupids, Volk’s arms shot out, grabbing them both by the throat and lifting them off their feet. The cupids gurgled in protest, arms and legs flailing. Without losing a beat, Volk kept walking, and as he was about to pass through the open door, slammed both cupids into the wall. They slumped to the ground unconscious.
Volk continued on his way without looking back.
I do love that angel, Grace thought.
Volk grinned. “I know.”
35
Nuts
Commander Sett rinsed out two tumblers and set them on his kitchen table. Then he opened a cabinet above the sink and pulled down the hundred-year-old bottle of Scotch he had been saving. He tossed it to Captain Abishai, who was sitting at the table in the center of the commander’s small kitchen. Abishai caught it, a panic-stricken look on his face.
“Damn, Sett, what if I had dropped it!”
Sett grinned. “You wouldn’t dare.”
Abishai shook his head and opened the bottle. He filled both tumblers halfway. The two old friends held up their glasses and clinked.
“To Eros,” Abishai said.
“Screw Eros,” Sett said. “To liberty.”
He threw back the Scotch, reached into his pocket and offered Abishai a cigar.
Abishai took the cigar, his untouched whiskey still in his raised glass. He looked about the kitchen. It was messy, as was the rest of Sett’s small cottage, but not dirty or grimy; just cluttered with books and papers, and mementos from Sett’s long and distinguished past.
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