The Code War

by Ciaran Nagle

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 and 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 dig 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.

  Jabez ran to the very edge of Heaven and shouted.

  'Kodrob.' This time his voice did not bounce back.

  He pulled out of the bag a spiral metal ladder, pinned one end of it under his foot and then threw the rest of it across the divide. The ladder unfurled itself as it went. It was just long enough. The last rung of the ladder was fitted with two long spikes which dug into Inferno's crusty ash surface.

  Kodrob had seen Jabez. Now he spotted the ladder bridge and set off towards it at a loping run, looking about him. The mawls followed him with their eyes, their mouths dropping open. They could see what was happening but even two of them together were no match for a heavily-armed front-line soldier like Kodrob. The gurn had disappeared.

  Kodrob reached the ladder bridge and looked across at Jabez.

  'OK, take your time Kodrob. There's no-one behind you.'

  But there was.

  More than a hundred miles behind Kodrob a sharp-eyed imp near the top of Husk Tower was surveilling the suffering hordes below. Something way in the distance had caught his attention and he raised his spy-glasses momentarily and re-focused. He saw the uniform of a Marauder captain on the very edge of Desoland and guessed it must be the demon on the run everyone was talking about. The one who'd apparently been a spy for Paradise for over two thousand years and was in the final stages of a plot against the Leader at the very moment his cunning plan was discovered. Damn him, the traitor.

  The imp raised the alarm and within moments shouts and commands were being thrown in all directions. Above him, the Leader heard the noise and ran to the open doorway at the side of the Oven. The same doorway which had witnessed many fine demons pass through on their one-way journey to the rocks below. He looked down to the far end of Desoland and his rebellious heart quailed.

  Kodrob slipped his knife into its sheath and his sword into its scabbard. He steadied himself and placed his foot on the first rung. Calmly he stepped onto the bridge and began to walk, not looking back. When he passed the mid-point, the Leader, looking on, realised he had been outwitted beyond recovery. He howled his fury and slammed the huge stones on the side of the doorway with his mighty hand. They smashed into pieces that flew for miles in an incandescent arc before smashing into the crowds below, husking many. The shock wave reached the roof of the tower, shaking the battlements and sending several sentries crashing to the rocks.

  But Kodrob knew none of this. He reached the Paradise shoreline and stepped off the ladder. He sank to his knees and put his lips to the ground, tasting its sweetness. Jabez tapped the ladder which furled itself in and came to rest at his feet. Heaven was secure.

  'Ex-Captain Kodrob, formerly of the Infernal Marauders, at your service.'

  Jabez put his arms around the demon and hugged him.

  'Welcome to your new home. You're safe now. The divide has closed behind you.'

  'I can't believe I'm here.'

  'As far as I know you are the first and may be the last devil ever to make this journey.'

  Kodrob looked around him, taking in the wild splendour of the landscape. He plucked a small flower and gazed at it, stroking its petals. 'Is all of Paradise so beautiful?'

  Jabez laughed. 'All of Paradise? Like this? Kodrob, you have no idea.'

  Jabez checked himself, realising the vast gulf of understanding between him and the grizzled ex-demon. He didn't want Kodrob to think he was mocking. 'No. Sorry. What I meant to say is, Paradise is vast. It's diverse. Every land is different. Beauty has many forms.'

  He grasped Kodrob's shoulders and raised him to his feet. 'You'll like it here,' he added quickly, as though the deserting captain might change his mind and go back.

  Kodrob breathed in. 'It smells nice in this place. But can I live? I can't even drink water.'

  'Your body will go through a lot of changes. It will take some time. But eventually you'll be able to eat and drink like us. And even look like us.'

  Jo and Chan walked carefully down the shingle towards the unlikely pair. Kodrob regarded them with fear. His right hand began to move slowly towards his sword hilt.

  'They're not the enemy any more. They're friends,' reassured Jabez with a smile. 'Say hello, guys.'

  'Hello,' said Jo.

  'Welcome,' said Chan.

  Kodrob looked Jo and Chan up and down.

  'If you say they're friends, who am I to disagree?' He held out his clawed hand to Jo who touched it as though she expected to be burned. Chan did the same.

  'I've got you a job, Kodrob,' said Jabez. 'Shall we go?'

  'Sure.'

  Scarpa Trovata, Boot and Shoe Archipelago, Azurine Sea, Paradise

  It was night time in the heavenly Mediterranean island of Scarpa Trovata. Stars spangled in the sky and the still air pulsed gently to the quiet beat of rock Music. Even angels couldn't sleep if their aural senses were being thrilled too much.

  Maria and Gianni were alone in the piazza to meet Jabez and his friends. As Kodrob stepped out of the Fundial, the Italian pair regarded him with wariness. Kodrob noted this and turned to Jabez. 'I don'
t want people staring at me all the time. I feel like a freak. Really, I just want to hide.'

  Maria and Gianni heard him.

  'I've an idea,' Maria said, staring uncertainly at the ruddy demon. 'Jabez told us already that you'll soon look like other Paradisians. We have a workshop behind our house that we use for special projects. It's not being used right now. If you like, you can live there for the time being while you adjust to Heaven's climate and food. When the redness fades from your cheeks and your eyebrows look a little less fierce…oh sorry, I hope you don't mind me saying that…'

  'I understand,' smiled Kodrob, and the others noted how friendly he could look when he relaxed.

  '…but what I mean is when you've eaten some good pasta and lots of fresh tomatoes you'll fit in better and then we can introduce you to the village.'

  'It sounds good,' replied the ex-demon. 'But you know, I want to work. I don't want to be a burden. I was a leather worker back in Assyria. I can use my hands.'

  'That's why I brought you here, Kodrob,' said Jabez. 'Maria and Gianni and all their people here in the Azurine Sea make the most beautiful leather boots and shoes in all of the Kingdom. You can put your old leather-working skills to good use here.'

  It was a match made in Heaven and soon the old warrior found himself tucked up in a soft bed in an attic of a quintessential Italian village and when he woke the next day and opened his shutters he would look out on a breathtaking vista of terracotta tiles, olive groves and fruit orchards leading down to sandy beaches and a morning sea made from a palette of the purest blues that Paradise could produce.

  Hades raged impotently for Kodrob's loss.

  Heaven's mercy had won it its most grateful soul.

  Jo and Chan put their arms around Jabez as they walked back to the Fundial.

  'I don't know how you swung it with the powers upstairs but saving Kodrob was the most courageous move I've ever seen,' said Chan.

  Jo looked up at Jabez, her jet black feathers shimmering like a midnight sea under the moon. 'Jabez, if you still wonder why you were chosen for the Nancy mission, wonder no more. No one else I know would have ended it this way. What you've done has won a greater victory than anything most other angels would have done. Any Heaven-dweller who hears the story of you and Kodrob will be inspired. You weren't the perfect project manager. But you were the right one.'

  Jabez took a moment to absorb Jo's comment. 'Thank you friends. But you and your space engineering played a vital part. If you hadn't built the Fundial, everything would have played out differently and who knows how it might have ended?'

  'You know,' said Chan, 'this is one occasion when I believe a cold beer is justified. Let's put the Fundial on automatic back to the Pavilion and have us a brew while we talk some more.'

  The Landing Fields

  Morning sunlight poured over the sculptures and trees outside the Welcome Pavilion. The sculptures were made in their own art by Paradisians from every nation and tribe. They welcomed new arrivals of their kind, proclaiming the Creator's joy in their uniqueness.

  The trees were transplanted here from every land in Paradise and hinted at the wonders to be discovered in the journeys and careers ahead.

  Within the Pavilion, thousands of families and friends reunited talked and laughed and made-up amidst tears, hugs and hoots. The flow of people in and out was like an airport lounge. But unlike those soulless temples of restlessness, the Pavilion beat with joy, hope and fulfilment.

  Nancy, Ruth, Angela and Luke were still in the Pavilion having talked tirelessly through the night.

  'There must be something in this wine. If it's not alcohol, it must be caffeine,' shouted Nancy across the hubbub as she returned to the table with another jug.

  'And that's another thing,' agreed Luke who was keen to explain all that Paradise had to offer. 'Here there are more than a million types of bean and leaf which means you can try different hot drinks every day.'

  'I can't take it all in,' exclaimed Nancy, sitting down and putting her hands over her head. 'Heaven just seems to go on and on.'

  'Don't worry, the introductory tour of Paradise for new arrivals will give you a good overview of the basics,' said Agatha. 'It lasts a hundred years but seems to fly by in an instant. The food and transport are great and the guides are really knowledgeable.'

  Luke added his favourite. 'If you like skiing, the eighty mile downhill at…Jabez, you're back!' Jabez took a seat opposite Nancy and smiled at everyone.

  'Where have you been?' enquired Nancy. 'I've been missing you already.'

  'Er..I went to meet a new arrival. Someone I met on my travels.'

  'Did it go well?' asked Ruth. She had alerted Agatha and Luke about the mission to bring Kodrob across. They had all pledged secrecy until the outcome was known.

  'Very well. Our new friend has settled in nicely.' Jabez paused. 'I'm sure he'll pick up the threads quickly,' he added with a wink.

  'He definitely won't be down at heel for long, then.' Luke.

  'Sounds like he'll really put his sole into it.' Agatha.

  'Erm..He's clearly tenacious. I'm sure he'll last.' Ruth.

  'Hey this isn't fair. You lot are talking in code. What's going on?' complained Nancy mournfully.

  'I promise I'll tell you later,' said Luke with a grin. 'But it's good news and it's one more positive outcome to emerge out of your journey here.'

  'Well, I'm glad about that,' said Nancy sitting back. 'So, what happens now? I've arrived in Heaven even though I scarcely believed in it till a short while ago. Can I take a little walk around and get my bearings?'

  'Of course, let's do that,' Jabez pushed his glass away.

  'Ah've got a suggestion.' Ruth had her hand in the air. 'Ah think we should let Jabez take Nancy for a little stroll, just the two of them, and let her stretch her legs. She's been in this Pavilion almost since she got here. Time for her to start seeing a little more of Paradise.'

  Around the oaken halls other groups were coming to the same conclusion. While new parties arrived accompanying a soul fresh in from Earth, others were pushing back their chairs and leaving for another land within the Kingdom.

  Jabez had been relieved at Ruth's suggestion that he take Nancy for a walk, just the two of them. There was something he wanted to ask Nancy in private. He just didn't know how he was going to do it. Or what her answer might be.

  He led Nancy outside where they waved goodbye to Ruth, Agatha and Luke. Then he stood up tall and spread out his wings to their full span. Nancy looked from wing tip to wing tip and was amazed to see the distance they reached. Every feather was neatly in its place, like white-shirted students in a classroom. Every plume was alert as though searching for its share of wind.

  Deftly he scooped her up in his arms, raised his wings and lifted off with a powerful downward beat. They soared up into the blue sky where Nancy looked around and caught glimpses of pyramids and towers and ziggurats and castles in settings more vivid than any fairytale could tell. They flew for an hour without speaking while Nancy took in the sights of her new home. Eventually Jabez glided down and planted them both in a garden glade within a blue tree forest. They walked along one of the sandy trails.

  'You know Nancy, while we were on the project to rescue you, we looked up your ancestral tree.'

  'Oh, and did you find lots of crooks and murderers?'

  'One or two, since you ask. Though Mya Ling was the most colourful, by a long way.'

  'So she realIy was my great-great grandmother and I really am part Chinese?'

  'Yes, you're an English Chinese-Russian Jew.'

  'Holy melting pots. So when I wore that tabard in Gambia as though I was representing the United Nations, it was half-true.' She was laughing.

  'You could put it that way. But there was anoth…'

  'You know,' interrupted Nancy, 'I've had quite an odd feeling and it's been growing stronger since I arrived on the Landing Field. But I feel as if everything about me is important and valuable. And wanted. I feel so w
anted.'

  'That's what Paradise is all about.'

  'It's amazing. I feel so alive.'

  Jabez was wondering how he could get back to his subject. Nancy unwittingly helped him out.

  'So did I have any other famous ancestors?' she asked, watching a tumble of butterflies chase each other nearby.

  'I'm glad you asked that question.'

  'Oh goody. What are you going to tell me now?'

  'Well we traced your maternal line way back before Mya Ling. A long way back. Ruth did all of the research, by the way. It's her thing.'

  'I like Ruth so much. Her jewellery is amazing.'

  'Yes, she designs it all herself. She has it made by an artisan in the Mines of Kurkatorra. That's where the liquid sapphires come from. Anyway, she traced your line back and when she got to a thousand years BC she found your great great grandmother many times removed was my sister.'

  'Oh, very interesting. What does it mean?' Nancy paused at a rose bush to smell one of its flowers, inhaling deeply. Bumble bees shopped busily for nectar inside the petals. They gathered golden ripe pollen and stuffed it into their legbags like shoplifters. She pulled a head of roses towards her and grazed her nose against it.

  'It means that you and I, we're family.'

  Nancy's hand jerked up from the rose stem, knocking against the petals. Several of them went flying into the air as the stem swung away and back again. She turned and looked at Jabez closely.

  'Family?'

  'Yes. Family.' At last he had her full attention.

  'So what I was thinking was..' Jabez looked at the bees, trying to find the right words. 'I was reflecting that you didn't really have much in the way of family when you were growing up. But I've been watching over you. I've been watching over you as though you were my little sister. I know you were an only child, without any siblings. So I was thinking, well, since you're descended from my own sister, only many times removed, that, well, it might be good if you weren't many times removed and that I could be, well, what I am, really. I mean I could be your brother. If you'd like me to, that is.'