Thaumatology 07 - Eagle's Shadow

by Teasdale, Niall

  Levy climbed to his feet to a round of slightly random applause from the audience. Ceri glanced across to where Lily was standing near one of the doors to the kitchens. Lily turned and slipped quietly out of the room. Nita had taken up position near the large main entrance door and, even from across the room, Ceri could see power starting to move in her Chakral median. It was almost time. By now, Hoffman would be in control of the audio-visual room running the sound system…

  ‘Thaumatology,’ Levy said. ‘It’s not a word you hear on my lips often and there was a time when I thought that “magical science” was just about the most ungodly phrase anyone could utter.’ He was smiling and everyone laughed, if a little mutedly. ‘But I tell you this, the science of magic is one of the things that keeps our great country safe, and it’s what’s going to make it even greater. After the Shattering, we were left weakened, but our strength is growing. Our alliances and our technology make us strong. And young men like Martin William Whitaker are going to make us stronger still.’

  Ceri looked around while trying not to look like she was. One table near the back had become a little more animated. There was a young man there who looked a little out of place; uncomfortable in his tux, too young for the crowd. The woman sitting beside him and looking very proud was in her early thirties and wearing a dress which did not come near matching the cost of those around her. Martin and his mother, Ceri guessed.

  ‘Martin is academically brilliant. The judges for this award were amazed to discover his insight into the theory of magic. They say he has knowledge surpassing his years. Beyond that, he graduated high school a year early with remarkable test scores. His mother wasn’t surprised. She says he’s always had a talent for numbers and he could see through magical tricks when he was nine.’ There was a rumble of laughter from the audience, but Ceri frowned. ‘So, let’s stop embarrassing him and give him his just reward. Martin Whitaker, let’s give this brilliant young man a round of applause.’

  Martin got up from his table, red-faced, and headed for the stage as the audience rose to their feet and clapped. His path took him closer to Ceri and that was when she felt it. Somewhere in the back of her head, something shivered. It was not the same as when there was a dragon nearby, but it was there. Martin was a sorcerer. Ceri wanted to rush up to him and say something. She wanted to hug him. She wanted to scream for joy that she was not the only one. And she definitely wanted to warn him. Not that she could do any of that, so she watched as he continued on his way, apparently oblivious to her. Her own ability to sense dragons had taken time to develop, perhaps he could feel nothing from her, or he was ignoring a sensation he did not understand, or maybe it was just that he was so overwhelmed that he had not noticed.

  Up on stage, Levy handed over a scroll of some sort to Martin. The student was too embarrassed to say anything; his thanks were a mumble over the speakers before he bowed to Levy and then the audience and hurried to get back to his seat. Levy turned back to the microphone, smiling. He opened his mouth to speak…

  ‘There are six things that the Lord hates…’ The voice was resonant, deep, and sounded artificial somehow. It was certainly not Levy’s voice, though it came through the speakers around the room. ‘…seven that are an abomination to him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.’

  There was absolute silence. No one spoke. It sounded as though no one was breathing. Just for that brief period before people were going to start shouting, you could have heard a pin drop. Just at the point where the yelling was going to start, the fire alarm sounded and the yelling was suddenly screaming.

  Ceri felt the ripple of magic from Nita and suddenly it appeared that smoke was billowing out from under the main doors. Actually it was billowing out of nowhere, but any chance that anyone would spot that was destroyed as Nita screamed, ‘Fire!’ and the room dissolved into chaos.

  The Secret Service moved into action like a well-oiled machine. At the fire door, the agents drew their weapons and stood guard, suggesting forcefully that guests use a different door. The main guard detail surrounded Levy, taking Angelica with them, and started for the exit, pushing aside men in tuxedos and women in dresses which cost more than Ceri’s salary. Ceri gave a last glance toward the main doors to be sure Nita was making her escape in the crowd before heading for the fire door and Levy.

  As Hoffman had said they would, the two agents at the door had stayed back to protect the rear. One of them saw Ceri coming and raised his gun. ‘You’ll have to use another exit, ma’am,’ he said, but Ceri was having none of that. The two guards keeled over where they were standing as her sleep spell hit them, and then she was bursting through the door into the corridor beyond.

  Twenty yards to the left and into the stairwell leading to the car park. She heard the sudden cries from the floor below, and the sounds of pistols hitting concrete followed by bodies. She smiled and hurried down the stairs. Lily had been waiting down there and her aura could stop a bus never mind a crowd of agents.

  The sight which met Ceri’s eyes as she reached the first landing, however, was more of a shock. Angelica was still standing. The woman had to have a lot of willpower. Worse, her hand was full of fire and she was getting ready to throw it at Lily. Ceri’s mind lashed out as the fireball flew. It travelled a couple of inches and then flew back, hitting Angelica in the chest and wringing a shriek from her lips before she fell, hitting the floor with a solid thud and rolling down half way to the next level.

  Lily gave Ceri a relieved smile, but they still had work to do. Ceri stepped over and around groaning bodies to find Levy. Putting her hand on his head, she closed her eyes and concentrated. His mind resisted, but he clearly did not have his wife’s strength of will. Drenched in euphoria, it was hard picking out thoughts which were not about the pleasure he was feeling. She picked out an image of signing off on an order to mobilise forces for an exercise in Virginia. There was something about an Operation Black Top which Ceri did not understand, but it seemed important to Levy. Then there was a meeting Levy had had a few days earlier. Ceri’s blood ran cold when she saw the man Levy had met with; dressed in a suit rather than a robe or chainmail, it was still very recognisable as Gadriel, the Angel of War.

  ‘We don’t have time for me to go deeper,’ Ceri said, breaking the link. Above them the door crashed open in the stairwell. ‘Time to go.’ Reaching out, she focussed her will once more and Lily vanished. ‘I can always get to you, you old bastard,’ she told Levy, and then she vanished into thin air as well.

  ~~~

  ‘If you can work teleports,’ Lily said as they lay on the bed waiting for Nita and Hoffman to get back, ‘why didn’t you just teleport us out of Black Fields?’

  ‘Because the equations had no consideration for teleporting out of a null zone,’ Ceri replied. ‘In fact there’s no consideration of the Super-magic field at all. It might have worked, or it might have scattered our atoms over six dimensions.’

  ‘Maybe not such a good risk.’

  Ceri grinned. ‘I’d have had to send you first. About the only consolation I’d have had was I wouldn’t know you were dead until I joined you. I was planning to jump us back home when we got clear, but then we ran into Kangee…’ They had called his voicemail from a payphone on the way back, asking him to look into Operation Black Top.

  ‘Yeah,’ Lily said, ‘and then we ended up on another crusade.’

  ‘I don’t think we crusade. Well, not exactly.’ Sometimes it felt like it. Ceri decided to change the subject. ‘That kid, Martin, who won the award, he’s a sorcerer.’ Lily blinked at her. ‘I felt it as he walked past me. I’m not the only one anymore.’

  ‘If there’s another one here, maybe there are more in Britain.’

  ‘It’s possible, but I’ve never met one. I’d know. Now I’ve seen one walk past, I know I’d know.’


  The door to the other room opened forestalling further discussion. A second later Nita walked in, followed by Hoffman. Both of them looked fairly pleased with themselves, but eager to hear what Ceri and Lily had found out.

  ‘You had no trouble getting out?’ Ceri asked as the agents took seats.

  ‘Evacuated out before anyone knew it wasn’t a real fire,’ Nita said.

  ‘Fire alarms tend to make people a bit less observant,’ Hoffman said. ‘I walked right past two agents I knew and neither of them noticed me.’

  ‘Our end went down pretty well,’ Ceri said.

  ‘Aside from Angelica,’ Lily said. ‘She’s a practitioner and she stood up to my aura. Ceri stopped her though.’

  ‘Interesting,’ Hoffman said. ‘There’s no record of her being able to work magic.’

  ‘She’s pretty strong,’ Ceri said, ‘and she casts a fair bit from the look of her median. Have you any idea what Operation Black Top is?’

  Hoffman looked at Nita, who shook her head. ‘I’ve not been read into anything of that name.’

  ‘It’s something important to Levy,’ Ceri said. ‘I’ve asked our pack contacts to see if they can come up with anything. He also met with someone recently. Someone I’d hoped was dead.’

  Lily frowned at her. ‘Gadriel?’

  Ceri nodded. ‘I don’t think Levy knows who or what he is.’

  ‘And that is?’ Hoffman asked.

  ‘An angel,’ Ceri replied. ‘Maybe fallen, but definitely not a nice guy.’

  ‘And you think he’s involved with this?’ Hoffman asked.

  ‘He taught mankind the arts of war,’ Ceri said. ‘He’s supposed to be the angel who governs war between nations. I’d say he’s probably encouraging it if not actually behind it.’

  ‘That’s what he was doing in Britain,’ Lily said. ‘If it had got out that Brazil was sending agents in to kill British citizens, and then there was the angelic invasion. He was trying to start a war.’

  Ceri nodded. ‘The thought had occurred to me.’

  ‘War with China,’ Nita said, ‘even with the Brazilians on our side, they’d walk all over us. He won’t get much of a war.’

  Hoffman shook his head. ‘It’ll go on for years. Not with the Chinese, that’ll be the excuse. They’ll start by taking the Tribal Territories. When they’ve grabbed enough of the southern states, the Brazilians will ask for help destroying their “monsters” and we’ll march south through Mexico.’

  ‘It’s insane,’ Nita said. ‘Why would anyone want that?’

  ‘Yahweh was a war god,’ Lily said. ‘Whatever else he may seem to be, war and dominion is what he’s good at. Maybe Gadriel really is doing as his god commands.’

  ‘That’s very… Old Testament,’ Hoffman commented.

  ‘So is the Brazilian Church,’ Ceri replied. ‘We’re heading back in the morning?’

  Hoffman nodded. ‘First thing, so I suggest we relax and get some sleep.’

  ‘Oh yeah,’ Nita replied, ‘a shower and some sleep sounds good.’

  Ceri felt the hint of amusement coming through her link with Lily and wondered what that was about, but all the half-succubus said was, ‘Relaxation does sound like a good idea.’

  I-95, north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 27th

  The absent whistling finally got to Ceri. ‘Ed seems rather cheerful this morning,’ she said to Lily. ‘He’s been making noises like an out-of-tune steam train since we left the hotel.’

  Lily, sat in the back with Ceri, smirked. ‘Nita’s looking very pleased with herself too. I think she had an early breakfast.’

  ‘I thought Ed was all “wear something in bed,”’ Ceri replied, trying to keep the grin out of her voice.

  ‘Maybe she kept her clothes on,’ Lily suggested.

  ‘You know I can hear you, right?’ Hoffman said from the front.

  The girls, all three of them, giggled. ‘All right,’ Ceri said, ‘change of subject. What do you know about Angelica Levy?’

  ‘Uh… Twenty-eight years old. Born out of wedlock in Atlanta. No one knows who the father is and her mother died in childbirth. Raised in an orphanage which burned down when she was seventeen. She was the only survivor.’ He paused. ‘If I remember right, they found her in the wreckage. She should have been cinders, but she wasn’t hurt. Some minister in the local evangelical church proclaimed it a miracle and took her under his wing. That’s where she met Levy.’

  ‘Miraculous, huh?’ Ceri said.

  ‘Wasn’t there some nut locked up for claiming she was a monster?’ Nita said.

  ‘Bruce, or Bryce, yeah,’ Hoffman agreed. ‘He was taken down by Secret Service agents when he tried to attack her with a hatchet during the last election. At the time it was thought he was attacking Levy himself, but he was interviewed afterward and said it was Angelica he was after. Said she was an “abomination before God.”’

  ‘Nephilim,’ Ceri said. ‘She’s a Nephilim.’

  ‘I bet I know who the father is too,’ Lily added. ‘Do you think that was what he was trying to do to you?’

  ‘Uh… what?!’ Nita asked, bewildered.

  ‘Gadriel,’ Ceri said. ‘He’s into seducing human women.’

  ‘You had sex with an angel?’

  ‘It felt like sex, but it was actually more like a possession. He took over my body and mind, made me feel what he wanted me to feel. He didn’t quite get my soul. Maybe if he had, I’d be pregnant with one of his kids, I don’t know. At the time it seemed more like an exercise in control.’

  ‘It would explain this Gadriel’s interest in Levy,’ Hoffman commented. ‘What does he look like?’

  ‘Anything he likes,’ Ceri replied, ‘but he seems to like a tall, slim, male body. Muscles, no hair, and sharp, angular features. Very resonant voice.’

  ‘Grant Dorian,’ Hoffman said. ‘He’s a special advisor to the Whitehouse on South American affairs. He’s not actually on any payroll, but they call him when they want advice.’

  ‘The CIA was a bit pissed off about it,’ Nita said. ‘Levy in particular takes Dorian’s word over the intelligence assessments the Agency produces.’

  ‘We don’t see him in DC much,’ Hoffman added. ‘He spends most of his time around Rio, supposedly anyway.’

  ‘He probably does,’ Ceri said. ‘I doubt he’s in physical form much of the time though.’

  ‘So, in all probability,’ Hoffman mused, ‘Levy is a pawn. A pawn with power, but a pawn.’

  ‘Probably,’ Ceri agreed.

  ‘In that case, how do we fight an angel and a half-angel?’

  ‘I’m not sure yet,’ Ceri said, ‘but if I get another shot at Gadriel I’m going to blast him to so much ectoplasmic dust.’

  Alexandria

  ‘Operation Black Top is being run out of a technology unit of the CIA,’ Kangee’s voice said on the voicemail recording. ‘It’s hidden behind so many layers of security that we’re having trouble getting anything else on it. It does seem like it was instigated by the Vice President’s office. If we get more we’ll let you know.’

  Ceri listened for the beep and then said. ‘We’re back in Alexandria. No sign of trouble. Gadriel is definitely involved.’ Then she hung up.

  ‘Anything?’ Lily asked, her eyes absently scanning the street.

  ‘This operation is some sort of technology thing,’ Ceri replied. ‘Very high security.’ They started walking back toward the house.

  ‘A technology project? I don’t get it. What’s Levy want with a technology project now? And why give it a name like that?’

  ‘No idea, love. Hopefully they’ll be able to find something more out.’

  ‘Town gossip at twelve o’clock,’ Lily said, grinning and then turning it into a smile. ‘Hello, Phyllis.’

  ‘Afternoon, dears. I just had to see the two of you.’ Lily glanced at Ceri, but Mrs Maclusky was into her stride and did not need prompting. ‘I’ve seen those gangsters again. While you were away, and then just now. Driving
past like they’ve bought the road, and paying a lot of attention to Mister Hoffman’s house.’

  ‘Okay,’ Ceri said. ‘Thanks, Phyllis. We’ll make sure Ed checks all the doors and windows before we go to bed.’

  ‘You do that, dear,’ Maclusky said, nodding. ‘Casing the joint. That’s what they were doing.’

  They kept walking, watching the cars that passed as they went. Nothing seemed out of place as they walked up the short flight of steps to the door and pressed the bell. Nita let them in and they moved quickly into the lounge were Hoffman was busy on his laptop.

  ‘Mrs Maclusky says her gangsters have been back,’ Lily said.

  ‘Twice, while we were away,’ Ceri added.

  ‘Likely because of the tail we dumped,’ Hoffman replied. ‘Anything on Black Top?’

  ‘It’s being run out of a CIA technology unit,’ Ceri told him. ‘Very top secret. They’re continuing to gather information, if they can.’

  ‘Technology? Something to do with these new weapons Kelley mentioned in his speech?’

  Ceri frowned. ‘It’s possible. Hopefully we’ll know more soon. It may be related to his overall plan rather than anything specific to the President. Do you have scrying wards on this place?’

  ‘Of course,’ Hoffman said, looking up. ‘The Secret Service puts them in when we move into a house. Can’t have anyone spying on our agents.’

  Nodding, Ceri started for the hall. ‘I’ve got some stuff I need to think about. I’ll be in our room if anyone needs me.’

  ‘Stuff?’ Nita asked.

  ‘It’s something Kelley said. I need to work out some maths.’

  ‘Do we have time to be doing math?’ the CIA agent said, grinning.

  Ceri grinned back. ‘Oh, there’s always time for science.’

  ~~~

  The air was filled with silver trails. Nita’s jaw dropped as she followed Lily into the bedroom. Lily had seen it before; she thought it was amazing when Ceri used empty space as a blackboard, but the sight had lost its shock value.