INFERNO (New Perdition's Gate Omnibus Edition)

by James Somers

  Fear spread through the gathering crowds behind the line of soldiers as the two men, so long feared by the world for the mighty plagues issuing from their pronouncements, rose up into the heavens upon the vortex of cloud. It was as though the arm of God had reached down to scoop them up from the Earth. Rather than recede with the risen prophets, the clouds turned more violent. Darkness gathered beneath them as they spread out to shadow the entire city of Jerusalem. The wind surged through the streets, knocking down pedestrians, whipping up debris and drowning out the panicked cries of hysterical witnesses to the unbelievable event.

  Hailstones, larger than a man’s head, rained down upon the populace, destroying homes, buildings and vehicles even as many tried to flee from the onslaught. Cars and trucks crashed into businesses, pedestrians and one another. Lightning split the sky again and again, igniting fires. The stampede of panicked bodies grew exponentially—every man seeking to save his own life at the risk of all others around him.

  Whoever had seized the prophets from the grip of death and lifted them into the heavens had remained to pour out his fury upon the earthbound. Some, in their hysteria, wondered if this might be the Creator God of the Christians, spoken of by the two prophets during their three and a half years of preaching while they tormented the nations of the world with their plagues. Others wondered if the world as they knew it might be coming to an end. Both groups were right. More than anything, everyone wondered where they could find safety.

  FURIOUS

  Wraith finished off the last of a custard filled pastry which had been part of a tray brought in for the meeting Oliver Theed had called him to attend. He licked his thumb and forefinger, following the last bite then smacked upon his mouthful obnoxiously. Jacob Stein sat across the long table from the Babylon agent, looking disgusted by the big man’s gross lack of manners. Oliver Theed stood with his back to them both, staring out the large one way window toward the older portion of Jerusalem where his headquarters and the newly restored Temple stood upon the Temple Mount.

  His attention had wandered from the conversation Jacob had brought up concerning Wraith’s and Babylon’s current progress in hunting down the various groups of Christians still at large. Of even more importance was another threat to Theed’s power. Some of the nations weren’t falling in line.

  The Russian Empire was threatening to rebel. Theed had begun to contemplate a war, but others might join against him. Still, he must assert himself—his power and his dominance over the world, or risk losing all.

  Plumes of smoke rising from the western side of the Temple Mount caught his eye. Someone was firing weapons near the Temple where he had his headquarters. There were no soldiers except his own in Jerusalem. The IDF had been assimilated with his own forces. More arrived each day. In their soundproof room, the others hadn’t taken notice of an obvious battle raging on the other side of the city.

  Theed turned to them. “Something is happening near the Temple.”

  Just then, the conference room door lock pinged as someone with the access code punched in and came through. Mr. Brody Tussle, once Oliver’s executive assistant but now acting under Jacob Stein, entered the room panicked. “Sir,” he pleaded with Theed, “You’ve got to see what’s happening!”

  The effeminate little man hastened to the large flat screen taking up most of the available space on the north wall. “Monitor, local broadcast, Wailing Wall,” he said evenly.

  The wall monitor responded immediately. “Accessing, Mr. Tussle.”

  A World News Broadcasting video icon appeared on the screen—six stars in synchronized orbit around earth. A live video feed replaced the icon, filling the wall with images of soldiers firing weapons toward the Wailing Wall. Oliver spotted the prophets, Michael and Jeremiah, alive in the midst of ricocheting bullets, fire and explosions. Yet, his soldier’s best efforts had no effect on the recently deceased prophets.

  Oliver gritted his teeth, slamming his fist on the table. A vortex of clouds manifested in the sky above the wall. He turned to peer out the window toward the Temple. “No!” Oliver pounded on the window as Jacob, Wraith and two of his agents attending the meeting with him, rose from their chairs to look between the monitor’s close-up feed and the live version beyond the one way window.

  Looking up into the sky, Oliver saw a pillar of cloud forming from the swirling vortex, reaching down toward the ground. He turned back to the monitor in time to see the cloud take in Michael and Jeremiah. Thunder rumbled across the city and through the video feed so loudly that the bewildered news reporter on the ground could hardly be heard. While most people had been unable to discern the booming voice emanating from within the cacophony, Oliver knew it well. Absently, he repeated the commandment he had heard spoken in the Hebrew language. “Come up here.”

  Everyone in the room remained transfixed as the pillar of swirling cloud lifted the two prophets high into the sky until they were received out of sight. Oliver’s rage boiled within him until he could contain it no more. “No! No! No!” His arm raked his lunch, coffee and files from the table top.

  He grabbed the closest thing to him—Brody Tussle. Oliver surged across the room with Tussle in hand. He slammed the small man, head first, into the viewing monitor. Theed continued to ram Tussle’s head into the Plexiglass until its shattered surface became smeared with Brody’s blood. Heaving his former executive assistant aside, Oliver turned toward the others. “How could you let this happen?”

  Wraith and Stein looked at one another then at their red-faced employer, unsure how to answer the man. Oliver was about to speak again when poor Brody Tussle began moaning in pain from the floor. Theed removed a semi-automatic pistol from a shoulder holster beneath his suit jacket and unloaded the clip into Tussle’s battered form without even blinking. He then laid the spent handgun down on the table before him. “As I was saying, I wanted those men guarded so that this wouldn’t happen.”

  Jacob fumbled for words. “But, Master, what does all of this mean?”

  “Didn’t you see, you fool?” Oliver said. “He’s taken them according to the prophecy!” Behind him, through the window, the sky continued to boil as the clouds grew and swept over the city. Darkness had descended, and the sun was blotted away by the furious maelstrom.

  Jacob stammered. “Who has taken them?”

  The ground trembled. The lights flickered then the power went out. An Emergency generator lamp came on in the corner of the room. In the low light remaining within the room Oliver Theed’s pupils took on a crimson glow. “Him.”

  High rise buildings in Jerusalem swayed like wheat in the wind as a furious Earth moved beneath them. One after the other, they toppled like Jenga blocks and smashed into the city streets, burying countless souls beneath their collective rubble. Screams resounded among the din as helpless citizens sought cover from crumbling homes and businesses—victims of crustal plates in revolt.

  Above the quaking city of Jerusalem, the swirling vortex of clouds had grown darkly ominous. Only the slightest traces of sunlight filtered through. Power to the city failed, plunging its inhabitants into near darkness. Hydrants and water lines burst, causing geysers to pour water through the debris-strewn streets. Bodies by the thousands, lay broken beneath endless drifts of concrete, steel and glass. Many more wounded remained trapped underneath mounds of rubble, gasping for precious last breaths of air.

  The quake lasted nearly ten minutes. In that time, a tenth of the city of Jerusalem’s buildings, structures and homes crumbled. Seven thousand had died, or soon would, as victims of divine fury.

  SURVIVAL

  Jason grabbed Chloe around the waste as she tumbled into him. The earth under their feet lurched violently only moments after seeing events unfold on one of the few remaining news feeds coming out of Jerusalem. A camera crew hovering over the city had managed to capture footage of several luxury high rise buildings toppling over into the smaller buildings around them.

  “Hold on, everybody,” Solomon shouted as tremors
found their base of operations. The hundred people gathered in the media center ducked beneath supports and prayed, watching the dust float down from the rock ceiling. Jason huddled next to Chloe, trying to provide cover for her in case anything happened to fall. After nearly forty seconds of tremors, they all remained safe.

  “The Lord has spared us today,” Solomon said.

  Power flickered, and one of the monitors came back on completely blue with a message written in white lettering. Searching for Satellite Signal. After a few moments the picture came back—the news broadcast they had been watching when the quake hit Jerusalem.

  “This is Blake Martin, WNB Jerusalem,” a haggard reporter said to the camera. His suit was tattered and smudged with mud—the toupee he normally wore, missing. “We’ve just experienced terrible events here in the city. As you can see behind me, the power is out as far as we can see here in Jerusalem. The clouds which brought this storm have begun to dissipate. What little sunlight we have has revealed terrible devastation around us.”

  The cameraman panned around with his equipment, sweeping past skyscrapers and other large buildings lying demolished as far as the eye could see. The camera fell upon the reporter again. Tears were streaming down his face. “It’s absolutely awful, folks,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. We’ll probably lose our battery power soon, but until then we’ll continue to broadcast and see if we can find any survivors among the wreckage.”

  Solomon tapped the mute button on the monitor remote. Everyone looked at him. “What’s wrong, Dad?” Chloe said, trying to penetrate the meaning in his perplexed expression. Jason watched father and daughter as the silent exchange between their eyes brought realization to Chloe.

  “Max?” she asked, her eyes pleading that it wasn’t so.

  Solomon closed his eyes and sighed before answering. “We have to go to Jerusalem, immediately.”

  Hours of driving out of Petra toward Jerusalem had brought them, at dusk, to an underground tunnel system which had been discovered by Solomon nearly a year ago. The network, formerly used by terrorist groups in order to bring weapons into Israel, had been abandoned some time ago, remaining partially collapsed. However, Solomon and his H3 robot crew, the same he’d been using to finish their work in Petra, had reopened the tunnels. “This allows us to get into Jerusalem unnoticed,” Solomon told Jason with a grin.

  “We’ll need it with that army of robots guarding the borders of the city,” Chloe said. She turned to Alfred, who stood waiting behind Jason in another of his holographic human disguises. “No offense, Alfred.”

  Alfred smiled, “None at all taken, Miss. After all, I’m much more than a mere robot.”

  Jason rolled his eyes at his automated companion and then grinned at Chloe before replying. “And that my friend will put you on point.”

  Alfred edged forward with his assault rifle in hand, moving to the front of the dozen Christian soldiers in line to enter the dimly lit tunnel. “Thank you, sir,” he said as he passed Jason. “That’s my favorite position.”

  Alfred dropped into the entrance which had been partially obscured by carefully placed debris from several junked Soviet tanks that still littered the surrounding terrain like the bones of long dead predators. Jason passed Chloe and Solomon to take up his position behind Alfred. The H7 Counterpart had already raced ahead and was only barely visible through Jason’s night-visor.

  He took off after the robot through the dim LED lighting emanating as a segmented line on the sides and roof of the tunnel, keeping a brisk pace. He heard Solomon Gauge and Chloe drop into the tunnel behind him and take up a steady jog. The other nine Christians, hand picked by Solomon for their combat skill, followed after. None of them realized it when they marched across the pressure sensitive plate hidden beneath the sandy bottom of the tunnel.

  An hour later, their band was feeling exhausted. “How long is this tunnel,” Jason said to Solomon through the auditory receiver implanted in his ear canal. I’ve noticed rooms and other passages leading off of this one along our way. Isn’t there some place where you take a pit-stop?”

  Solomon passed Chloe on her right and sped up to catch Jason. “Follow me.”

  Jason fell in behind the older man and allowed Chloe to catch up. “Are you all right?” he asked as they continued jogging after her father.

  Sweat ran down through her sandy hair and across her face. She was breathing hard but smiled. “I’m fine, don’t worry about me,” she said.

  “Up here,” Solomon said after a few moments of leading them off the main path. “We’ve got a kitchen set up here running on solar power supplied from some hidden panels up above.”

  The entire group followed him inside a small room equipped with a small refrigerator and several storage lockers. The rest of the room remained filled with sparse debris from a firefight long ago. Whoever had been using the tunnels had cleared out anything useful when they evacuated them.

  Solomon went to the fridge, opened it and began tossing containers of water to the rest of the team. “We’ve not got far to go now,” Solomon said. “There’s a very close exit just inside the perimeter wall of the city about three quarters of a mile away. However, I would prefer to go on to the next exit, which is about two miles further in. Hopefully that will allow us to avoid the perimeter robot guard Theed has set up since his takeover.”

  The group nodded. Jason remembered Alfred still out on point. “Alfred, do you read me?”

  “Yes, sir,” the robot replied.

  “Alfred, we’ve stopped for a rest,” Jason said. “How far ahead of us are you?”

  “Approximately one mile, sir. I’ve encountered no resistance, so far. Would you like me to return to your position?”

  “That won’t be necessary,” Jason said. “We’re planning to exit two miles from here, well inside the city. Proceed out to that distance and see if you can secure the exit there until we arrive.”

  “Affirmative, sir.”

  The members of their group drank a bottle of water each before Solomon prepared to leave. “We’ve not got much further to go,” he said. “However, we’ll need to be especially careful coming up into the city. There will almost certainly be patrols out trying to deal with the damage this quake has caused.”

  “And if they’ve got H9s patrolling, they’ve got advanced facial recognition software on board,” Jason added. “I’m on file for sure. So is Solomon. Don’t take any chances. Be ghosts.”

  Their team began to funnel back through the doorway and into the hall leading toward the main tunnel. Jason, Chloe and Solomon came out of the room behind the others, following them as they walked toward the main corridor. Ramirez, a young man in his late twenties and a former soldier with the Israeli Defense Force, rounded the corner first. He screamed.

  Jason could just make out Ramirez’s severed left arm spinning away from the rest of his body in the half-light of the tunnel. Ramirez opened fire with his machine gun—armor piercing rounds. Everyone had their weapons trained on the corner, some ready for anything while others clearly stood on the verge of panic despite their training.

  Jason switched to acid rain capsules and tried to shove through the others with Solomon right behind him. Ramirez’s scream died away as a sleek metallic arm thrust into view. Despite point blank machine gun fire, the arm seized the young man’s neck. The slightest twist of the robot’s powerful wrist snapped the soldier’s spine with a sickening crack. The machine gun fell from his hand as the robot tossed him like a rag-doll down the tunnel.

  An H9 Counterpart, the toughest new automaton on the market, rounded the corner in full view—its sleek humanoid form silhouetted against the sparse lighting from the wall behind it. Jason stopped cold in his tracks, aimed, then fired two rounds straight into the robots torso. The acid rain capsules exploded on impact, throwing the H9 off of its feet and back into the tunnel wall.

  “Retreat!” Solomon ordered. He turned and ran toward the other end of the side tunnel where they had t
aken water. This portion lay in almost complete darkness with wreckage strewn across the tunnel in a vain attempt to seal it off. Solomon blasted the debris with acid rain shells, clearing the way in short order.

  The H9 robot pulled itself out of the torn wall and launched toward Solomon’s team. Jason grabbed Chloe by the waist and arm, herding her after her father into the abandoned portion of the side tunnel. Behind him, automatic machine gunfire erupted in the tunnel as their team retreated from the H9 Counterpart chasing after them. Acid rain explosions punctuated the barrage—some rounds knocking the robot back down, while others only added to the din.

  “Alfred!” Jason shouted. “We’re getting hammered by an H9! Get back here fast!” But there came no reply except static. He called to Solomon out front. “Nothing!”

  “H9s have jamming capabilities!” Solomon shouted back through the darkness. He tapped the side of his goggles to turn on the night-vision function. Jason and Chloe did the same. The tunnel illuminated before their eyes. Unfortunately the dark would not hide them from the coming assassin.

  Behind him, Jason heard the cries of his fellow team members as the H9 closed the gap and tore through the Christian soldiers one by one. Jason pushed Chloe on ahead. “Go, stay with your father!”

  But she paused a few steps away. “I’m not leaving you!”

  Jason turned back to the H9 in time to see titanium blades thrust out of its forearms like swords. It leaped diagonally across the tunnel to the ground, rolled under fire from four of the remaining soldiers and came up on its feet among them. The H9 slashed into the three men and one woman before they could track their target and defend themselves.

  Jason took aim again with his rifle, preparing to unleash more acid rain capsules at the robot. But the H9 spotted him further down the pitch black corridor and swung its last impaled victim in front of it as the first shot landed. The first acid rain capsule obliterated the robot’s victim. The second round slammed into the H9’s breastplate and sent it tumbling backward nearly ten feet. The third round followed immediately, striking the robot’s head.