Over. So that was it. He’d never see Ellen and William again, even if he managed to survive the horror raining down around him.
Claire gasped. Ray opened his eyes.
Vinod was sprinting past him. The tyler had fallen out of the copter and was struggling to his feet at the foot of the stairs.
Or had he been pushed?
Vinod landed atop the tyler just as his fingers closed upon his gun. The two locked arms, the tyler’s knee slamming into Vinod’s crotch. Vinod’s face screwed up in pain as the tyler lifted the rifle.
Mantu’s foot connected with the tyler’s jaw. The rifle dropped to the ground. The guard appeared to be thinking deeply, his chin zigzagging, staring into the distance, then he collapsed face-first into the dirt. Vinod moaned, his hands cupped between his legs.
Sister Malaika backed out of the helicopter’s door and onto the steps. “You filthy pig!” she screamed. “Traitor!”
A man stepped into the doorway. He was tall, dressed in a flight suit, and his mostly gray hair was swept back into an enormous wave atop his head. He held a pistol—her pistol—aimed at her head. “Keep moving, sister,” he said.
Malaika stepped backward down the stairs. “You can’t do this.”
“Watch me,” he said. He pulled the trigger. Malaika jumped as the bullet struck near her feet. Now he pointed it directly at her face. “Get out of here, bitch. You’re grounded.” He seemed pleased with himself.
Mantu hoisted the tyler’s rifle to his shoulder. “Looks like your ride is leaving without you, sister.” He waved to the others. “Get on. And hurry.”
When Malaika turned her eyes had gone completely black. Ray had seen this before, right before Crawford was overtaken by the thing that had possessed him.
“Don’t look at her,” Claire said.
He struggled to avert his eyes. She was whispering to him with her gaze. Enter the gateways of my eyes, little brother. I have something I want to show you.
Claire slapped him. “Look at me.”
Ray turned. He blinked and shook his head rapidly. “I’m okay,” he said. He reached down and helped Vinod to his feet.
“Thank you, Brother Ray, my man,” Vinod said, coughing and wheezing. The man in the copter helped them all climb the stairs while Mantu kept the gun aimed at Malaika.
“Come and see me, my old friend,” Malaika said. Ray froze on the top stair. Her voice had changed and Ray immediately realized who was speaking. A voice he could never forget, one that still cut into his darkest dreams. “I’ve been waiting a long time,” Lily said. He could hear the toothy smile in the words.
“Sister Malaika, you have lost the true way,” Claire said. “May the gods have mercy on your soul.” She disappeared inside the aircraft.
Malaika shrieked. The sound was inhuman, bestial, the death screech of a cat being ripped to bits by a jackal. Ray covered his ears. Claire grabbed and pulled him deeper into the chopper but he could still hear her screams echoing in his skull.
Mantu stood in the doorway, wincing, the rifle shaking in his hands. “Get us the fuck out of here,” he screamed.
The man who had saved them retracted the door and sealed it. “Roger that.” He scrambled into the cockpit.
As the copter began to move, Ray prepared for the worst. The drones were everywhere, like maddened wasps, buzzing above the decimated compound, unleashing hot white tracers of lead and explosives. They wouldn’t make it. It was impossible.
He’d managed to strap himself into one of the aluminum seats that lined the walls. Claire held tight to his arm. Across from them, Vinod buckled himself in and smiled widely, as if he had never been happier to have been kneed in his balls. Mantu stumbled next to him, dripping sweat, and laid his gun at his feet. Ray closed his eyes, bracing for the impact he was sure would come.
“She hit me with some bad mojo,” Mantu said, dropping into his seat. “That woman is powerful.”
“Hang on tight, folks.” The pilot’s voice crackled through an intercom.
Ray’s guts felt like they had descended to his knees as they rolled forward. Bullets pinged against the exterior. Claire’s fingers dug into his bicep. The metal walls shuddered again, and his stomach lurched as it began to rise.
Vinod laughed. He actually laughed. Like a kid on a roller coaster.
“We’re going to make it,” Claire said. “We’re going to make it.” She laughed into Ray’s shoulder. Or was she crying? He couldn’t tell.
—
“Why didn’t they shoot us?” Ray asked. It was loud so he needed to put his mouth next to Claire’s ear. They were flying over dense, green jungle, following the river below. Mantu had gone to speak to the pilot. Vinod’s eyes were half-closed, his hands still cupped between his legs.
“They must have thought Malaika was still onboard,” Claire said. “That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Jesus,” Ray said. “So she was actually working with Lily.”
Claire nodded. “With her, for her, willingly or unwillingly, I don’t know. Nor do I know how long she was possessed. But it was not Sister Malaika we left back there.”
“No kidding.” Ray still couldn’t shake the cold malice in the deep black eyes.
“Lily may have used the artifact to prey on her. Malaika was the strongest of all the Council, maybe even stronger than Jeremy, but over time Lily’s manipulation may have weakened her defenses. I should have known something was wrong,” she said, shaking her head. “I might have been able to stop her. Or at least let the others know.”
Ray squeezed her shoulder. “It’s not your fault.”
“I felt something was wrong. It was there in my daily divinations, but I dismissed it. I should have trusted myself. But I was—I was just soaking it up like everyone else. Bathing in its energy. While it was eating away at all of us.”
“But you felt some hesitation, right? That’s what saved you. Saved us.”
Claire’s eyes were watery. “It was because of you that it dawned on me. When you said you’d seen Lily looking through it, I knew. I went to Jeremy, but at that point it was obvious he feared Malaika’s power. And the others were already giving their allegiance to her.” She shuddered. “That horrible thing…it was poisoning us, warping our minds, and Lily was watching through it, waiting for the right time so she could destroy everything.” Tears streamed from her eyes. “Everything we’ve worked for. Everything we’ve built. Centuries of the Great Work—just gone.”
“I’m sorry,” Ray said.
“Jeremy was a good man. A good leader. But it fooled him just like it fooled us. Like she fooled us.” She buried her face in her hands.
Ray held her. It felt good to be in the embrace of a woman. How long had it been since he’d been physically this close to someone? He felt a momentary twinge of guilt, but willed it away. She needed this. He needed this.
—
Mantu returned from the cockpit. “Good news and bad news. What do you want first?”
“I need some good news right now,” Claire said.
“All right. Well, the pilot—his name is Will Burnham—is still on with the original mission. There’s also a grumpy Russian copilot named Konstantin, but he barely speaks English. Guess what, brothers and sisters? We’re going to pay a visit to the redheaded Wicked Witch of the North.”
Ray clapped his hands. “Fuck yes.”
“What’s the bad news?” Claire asked.
“It’s roughly thirty-five hundred miles from here, as the crow flies. In the fucking Canadian Yukon. And if we have absolutely perfect conditions the whole ride, we won’t be there for three days.”
“Damn,” Ray said.
“Yeah, no shit. This is a big-ass bird, with spare tanks built into her. That means we need to make at least three, maybe four stops to refuel, depending upon the weather. And we have food and supplies for the dozen strikers who were supposed to be onboard, so no worries there. But our man Burnham has had limited contact with the brothers at th
e refueling stops along the way. They might be fine, but we don’t know. So we’re flying blind into one potential clusterfuck after another.”
“That’s disconcerting,” Claire said. “The entire U.S. is in chaos. If we can’t find the means to refuel…” Her words hung in the silence.
“Well, there’s some more good news,” Mantu said. “We have guns out the wazoo. And enough ammo to take out a couple of villages.”
“Good,” Ray said.
“And some winter clothes. Snowsuits, boots, snowshoes, the whole deal. Russian stuff, just like everything else on this flying fortress. No idea if they’ll fit, but if they do we’ll be toasty. And if you haven’t checked yet, under those tarps way in the back are a half-dozen snowmobiles.”
Ray nodded. “Canada, here we come.”
The loudspeaker crackled. “Hey folks, this is your pilot, Will Burnham, but you can just call me Burnham. We are now at our cruising altitude and I apologize for the earlier inconvenience with our unruly passengers.” Ray laughed. “Looks like you have some standup competition, Mantu.”
“We are on course for the Yoo-nited States of America,” Burnham said. “Weather looks ideal, sunny and clear, should be smooth sailing for the time being. So sit back, fasten your seat belts, place your tray tables in the upright and locked position, and enjoy the ride. There’s a cooler full of Diet Cokes and some pretzels in the back you can help yourselves to.”
Mantu shrugged. “He ain’t bad. Could use a little work on his delivery, though.”
“You’re jealous,” Ray said.
“You are still the funniest of all, Brother Mantu, my main man.”
Mantu held out his hand, and Vinod high-fived him.
Claire rolled her eyes. “Gods, you two.”
—
Burnham and Konstantin sat at the controls. The cockpit had seats for two other crewmen. Maybe these two didn’t need them, but the empty seats made Ray nervous.
“Wow,” Ray said. The landscape rolled below them.
“Beautiful, ain’t it?” Burnham answered.
Ray nodded. “How does the Brotherhood have a Russian military helicopter?”
“She’s on loan from brothers in the Venezuelan army. Used to fly oil execs and heavy machinery all over South America. She’s starting to show a little wear and tear, but they took pretty good care of her. This baby was jiggered by our mechanics to go ultra-long distances, so she’s basically a flying gas can. If one of those drones had unloaded into us…” He shook his head and spoke to Konstantin in Russian, then stood. “Hey, I need to stretch and get a Diet Coke. You want to walk with me?” He gestured through a door into the passenger section. Ray joined him.
“Why did you kick Malaika and the tyler out of the copter?”
Burnham chuckled. “Jeremy gave me my instructions. It’s pretty simple. I took an oath to defend the Brotherhood, and as far as I’m concerned Jeremy was my captain, not that crazy sister. I’m loyal to the man—that was never in question.”
“So what happened at Eleusis?”
“Hell if I know. I showed up and the strike team was AWOL. No one answered my radio. So I turned this bird off and caught some Zs. Figured the mission had been postponed for a few hours or something. Then a couple of tylers pulled up in the fuel truck to top me off. They didn’t say anything, naturally. But I could feel something was wrong—bad vibes hanging like a dark cloud over both of them, and they were twitchy, which I’ve never seen before. I was getting ready to go find Jeremy when another bunch of tylers showed up and told me Sister Malaika had taken over. What the heck, I said to myself. Then she shows up, kooky as a coconut, and says, ‘Hey, Burnham, I’m in command and you are going to fly me and this here tyler to the artifact.’ So I says, ‘Sure, sister, whatever you say.’ But her eyes were…well, I’ve seen crazy eyes before but nothing like that and there was no way I was taking her anywhere. Not when I had no idea what was happening to Jeremy. And then all hell started breaking loose out there.” He shook his head. “I hope I never see anything like that again.” He made the Brotherhood gesture—forehead, lips, heart. “So here we are. On a mission that makes no sense anymore. There were supposed to be a dozen strikers onboard, on the way to take out the Queen Bee once and for all.”
“Well, I’m still ready to do it,” Ray said. “I have a personal stake in this.”
“Yeah?”
He nodded. “She took the woman I love from me. And her son. And I plan on bringing them back.”
“Attaboy, brother.” Burnham laughed and fist-bumped Ray. “I’ll do my best to bring all three of you home in one piece.” He paused. “Although I don’t know where exactly home is anymore. With Eleusis gone—well, I guess we can figure that out later, right?”
“Yeah. I guess we can.” Ray hadn’t considered what the destruction of Eleusis meant for the Brotherhood. Were they finished? Were they all finished?
Burnham dug into a cooler and pulled out his soda. “Excuse me, Ray. I need to hit the pissoir and get back to my job.” He stepped away, then turned back. “You hang in there, brother. I’ve been on worse missions before.”
“Seriously?”
Burnham scratched his head. “Well, no. That’s actually a bunch of crap. But I always like to look on the bright side.”
Ray smiled. “Speaking of the bathroom…where is it?”
Burnham stepped over to the wall. “Right here.” He pulled a wide plastic tube out of its housing. It had a vaguely urinal-shaped opening at the end. “We have one in the cockpit, too. This ain’t a commercial vehicle, remember. Just do your best to keep your business properly aimed down the hole, otherwise it can get messy. Pour some water down the thing when you’re finished with it.”
Ray stared.
“You’ll get used to it, and it beats unloading into a plastic bag. Trust me,” Burnham said. “Toilet paper is in the locker with the MREs.”
—
Ray was jacked up on adrenaline, and his bruised stomach ached, but after several hours the hum of the copter’s engines lulled him into an uneasy sleep.
When he opened his eyes, Sister Malaika sat across from him. “Hope you don’t mind me tagging along,” she said. Her eyes were solid black.
Ray felt his chest tighten. “You’re not real,” he said.
Sister Malaika’s tongue flicked across her lips. “Oh, I’m real. As real as you are. When we meet like this, we’re both real. Realer than real, in some ways.”
“Go away,” Ray said.
Sister Malaika laughed. “Oh, Ray. Are you always so rude? Let’s enjoy our little visit while it lasts.” Her black eyes had grown enormous. Now they took up most of her face. Her lips were purplish-red and her long braids were curling and writhing like snakes.
“Eleusis is gone,” she said. Her voice was deep, baritone, and gurgly, as if coming from underwater. “The Brotherhood is lost, ashes scattered to the winds, their blood draining into the earth. And the doorway to a new world is opening.”
Ray saw the artifact in front of him, the film of quicksilver bubbling around it. There were things inside it; he couldn’t see them but he could feel their powerful presence, as if a million invisible eyes were staring at him. They wanted out. They wanted to be free of the black orb imprisoning them.
“Go away,” Ray whispered.
Now Malaika’s face was in his, eyes bulging black half-spheres like the artifact, their surfaces swirling with stars and white symbols. “The gates are opening, traveler.” Her mouth was twisted into an ugly grin. “There is no hope. No way to win. Death awaits you and everyone you love. We are waiting for you. All of us.”
The copter’s engine screeched. Metal against metal. Something popped, and he smelled acrid smoke.
“No,” Ray screamed.
Outside the window he saw flashes of green. The copter was plunging into the jungle.
“No!” he screamed again. Malaika laughed, and it wasn’t her laugh anymore, but Lily’s.
—
“Ray. Ray, wake up.”
It was Claire. She held his face in her hands. “It’s okay. You were dreaming.”
Ray felt sweat running down the back of his neck. He’d fallen asleep sitting in the flip-up seat. He rubbed his aching neck. “Sorry.” He breathed deeply. “Malaika was in my dream.”
Claire frowned. “What did she say?”
Ray shook his head. His heart was still hammering. “It’s hard to explain.”
“That was not an ordinary dream. She can use your dreams to contact you. Because of your skill as a—”
“Traveler,” Ray interrupted. “I wish I had never heard that word.”
Claire’s eyes lowered. “I understand. It can be a heavy burden.”
“You’re telling me.”
“But you could learn to control it. Put it to good use. I’ve been thinking about that. I can help you.”
“I don’t think so. In fact, I wish you could help me turn it off.”
“But what about William and—what’s his mother’s name?”
“Ellen.”
“Ellen. Right. Wouldn’t you like to make contact with them if it was possible? Even briefly?”
Ray sat up straighter. “You think I could do that?”
“I think it’s worth a try. Don’t you?”
“I don’t know.” The thought of dissociating again—of letting go of his mind—was terrifying. What if the bug-eyed Malaika was waiting there? With Lily? But if he could see Ellen and William, even for just a moment, maybe it was worth it. “If you think it can work. When can we try?”
“Now would be perfect. Your link with Sister Malaika has left you energetically wide open. I can feel it.”
He rubbed his eyes. “I still feel weird. Like when you wake up from a dream and can’t figure out whether you’re still dreaming or not.”
“Let’s try then,” Claire said. “Brother Vinod, do you mind leaving Ray and me alone for a few minutes? Maybe join Mantu in the back while he’s checking out the snowmobiles?”
Vinod lowered a Russian manual he had been flipping through. “Yes, Sister Claire. I will leave you alone with Ray.”
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