99 Gods: Odysseia
Page 11
Humbling.
John found Reed hunched over a laptop computer. “The kooky distraction’s done?” he asked.
Reed nodded. “Just made the false hotel reservations in Nairobi.”
“Did you use the same credit cards as the plane reservations?” John asked. Not his idea, Satan’s. To him, credit cards felt like cheating with money, stealing. Too new-fangled. He used to have a few, in Cosmo’s care, but they somehow stopped working within a week of his initial set-to with Dubuque.
“Of course,” Reed said, cocking his head and rolling his eyes. “Satan’s plane is being flown to Anchorage, and we’re going to be flying west, to Tbilisi, starting later tonight.”
John first looked up at the now fully dark sky, and then at his watch and noticed the time read six ought nine, five ought nine if you discounted the crazy daylight savings time thing. He had never liked the polar and near polar latitudes. They didn’t feel right to him, even around the autumnal equinox. He spotted Satan, sitting on the front steps of her now stripped trailer.
“It’s time,” he said, after he walked over to her.
“Time for what?” Satan said, drowsy.
“Time for Persona to leave you.”
“She’s not interested in leaving me,” Satan said. “Why?” That surprised him, given how hard he had worked to convince Persona to spend some time inside Satan and learn from her. Only after the chaotic insanity engendered by the birth of Nessa’s twins was he able to convince the sassy God to spend some time inside Satan, as a good – and safe – idea.
“Because the Fallen Angels will doom her to Hell.”
“Another thing you’ve been keeping hidden in the piles of shit inside your head?” Satan asked. “Explain this one to me in itty bitty words, please?” Please my ass, John thought. This was a Satanic demand if he ever heard one.
“Elorie and Ken strongly suggested the Angelic Host’s fear about the Fallen Angels is correct, believing their evil can contaminate the 99 Gods,” John said. “So, in my mind, bringing one of the 99 to them is the last thing we should be doing.”
His comment got the response John wanted. Persona stepped out of Satan, put her hands on her curvaceous hips, and glared at him. “Fuck the Host.”
“Furthermore, there’s abundant evidence the Host knows everything each of the 99 Gods does,” John said. “The fact you don’t talk to them doesn’t keep them from eavesdropping on you.”
“You’re saying I’m a danger to you both because of the Host and because of this contamination fear?”
John nodded.
“Well, crap,” Persona said. “Going with the Telepaths is going to be a waste of time. I’ve learned everything possible about them already.”
Satan snorted. “I think it’s time you stopped learning and started doing.”
“Doing what?” Persona said. “Watching another group of Telepaths get hunted down or betrayed to Dubuque?”
Ah, guilt. Such a wonderful emotion. “Do a better job this time,” he said.
“Well, fuck you, Lorenzi!” Persona stalked off. Neither he nor Satan followed.
“So, oh master of charm, you handled her well,” Satan said. “Go away and let me sleep, unless you want to piss me off some more.”
“I apologize, it’s a bad day,” John said, eating delicious crow. “I won’t disturb you further.”
John roused himself a half hour later when the extra wards he placed on the property triggered. Dave and Nessa had finally returned, walking up the trail from Eklutna. He slumped over toward them in the cold late afternoon darkness. Nessa, wearing a spring jacket and a skirt, of all things, bounded over to him and gave him a hug. Which let Dave, John’s primary target, escape.
“What, owwh,” John said, barely able to disentangle himself from Nessa’s hug. She smelled of sex, her musky odor overwhelming and far too inviting, causing physical responses he thought his body far too old and decrepit to experience. “What were you and Dave out doing, anyway?”
“Saying goodbye to the spirit graves and trying to sort out some personal issues Dave and I are having.”
Were his fears correct? “Have you sinned?”
“Nah, you dirty old man,” Nessa said. She flipped her long braided hair over her shoulder and tapped the top of John’s head. “Saving that for later, just a quickie with Ken before we teek off into the whatever.” She laughed. “Or perhaps not so quickie.”
John ignored his blush. “Why the hug?”
“You’re leaving, we’re leaving, and, well, we’re not likely to see each other ever again.”
“Uhh.” John shut his tater trap and tried not to think about Nessa’s comment, which had to be a telepathic hunch. “I didn’t think you wanted to leave here.”
“I don’t,” Nessa said. “But something slipped into my mind and convinced me.”
“What?” John said, worried.
Nessa shrugged. “This place is no longer mine.”
“No place is anybody’s,” John said. Nessa made a frustrated moue. “A lesson of modern philosophy says ‘the map is not the territory’. Your sensory and abstract knowledge of a place only confers superficial knowledge, leading to an infinite regress…” His voice trailed off as Nessa froze in place, actually glowing. Daughter of Light indeed! “Nessa?”
“Yah.” She shook her head and the glow vanished. “Exactly. ‘The map is not the territory.’ That explains things!” She took a step forward and grabbed his hands. “I’m going to miss you and your crazy ideas, John,” she said. He couldn’t believe it. Nessa’s eyes had teared up.
Telepaths. “We’ve spent the last four months avoiding each other and you’re going to miss me?” Nessa the impossible.
“I like fighting with you,” Nessa said. “Keeps me human.” She hugged him again. “Besides, you’re the father and I’m the daughter – it’s family.”
In reference to the Watchers designation of them as Daughter of Light and Father of Darkness. He had long been Nessa’s father stand-in. He didn’t realize Nessa liked the situation.
“What are you going to do?”
Nessa smiled. “Cause trouble.” She laughed. “We’re following Dave’s nose, or at least Ken is. I’m following Elorie’s. They have good noses.”
“That they do.” Both of them had already done the impossible, solving the disappearance of the Ecumenists. “You don’t trust your hunches?” Or the Sight of your pet Seer – he didn’t say.
“Not entirely, not after the betrayal,” Nessa said. She licked her lips. “Something’s interfering with our hunches. Good luck with the Watchers. You’re going to need all the luck you can get.” She kissed him on the top of his head and bounded off, taking her womanly reek with her, hopefully to get laid by her husband.
John bit his lower lip and turned away, an awful ache filling him. The Fallen Angels both terrified him and annoyed him. They had slain the Ecumenists, his people. They had killed all but two of the people he sent out to find what happened to the Ecumenists, a guilt laying heavy on his soul. They had nearly enslaved Nessa and Ken.
Nessa’s goodbye hug didn’t help, not one bit.
“Some biblical scholars believe that the story of the fall from the Garden of Eden was a cultural memory of the transition from foraging to agriculture: ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.’ … Eden may have been just too dangerous. A few cavities, the odd abscess, and a couple of inches in height were a small price to pay for a fivefold better chance of not getting speared.” – Stephen Pinker, The Better Angels of our Nature
“I’m not sure what’s worse, the initial psi echo effect or us trying to fix it.”
9. (Dave)
“Roswell?” Elorie said, after they came out of the four-person-one-mind-meditation session into the dry desert sun of New Mexico. Dave checked his fingers and toes, just to make sure he hadn’t gotten stuck in some funny mental state. Ten of each, gritty with yellow-brown alluvial dust. Good enough for now. The ‘oneness’ state was so much
more vivid now that he was able to open up his mind shields. “Santa Fe’s holing up in Roswell?”
The X-Files theme sprang up around them.
Dave couldn’t tell where Persona’s thoughts came from or in which of them she hid today. She had recently added another notch to her belt, supposedly able to fool Telepaths now, even Nessa. She credited her time merged with Bais for that.
“Any idea where in Roswell?” Abe said. He combed his hair again, what had to be a nervous affectation. He carefully didn’t make eye contact with any of the four of them, even though his voice and presence always demanded attention.
“Nope. We need to go back into the one-mind state to figure that out, when we get closer.”
“Saddle up,” Ken said, radiating black humor. They took off from the desert dryland outskirts of the city of Santa Fe and turned southeast. Nessa, after establishing the usual invisibility illusion around them, gathered up Zach from Dave and went to sit by herself, crooning at Zach, rocking back and forth. Dave took another longing look at the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, thinking geology and strenuous hiking.
“You have a moment?” Abe asked Dave. Dave nodded; Abe patted the surface of Ken’s teek, inviting Dave over. All of the others stayed within skin contact of each other, distant from the Telepaths.
Dave looked over Abe, carefully keeping his mental shields closed.
“You’re spooked,” Dave said. People often reacted that way after exposure to Nessa and Ken’s upper end tricks. He certainly had.
“I’d heard the stories, but I never knew how Telepaths like Nessa and Ken could casually use their gifts and stay at all human.” Of all the crazy things, Abe’s outside-of-the-Indigo career was, or had been, as a rock star. Well, minor European rock star, but still.
Dave shrugged. “In the six months I’ve known them, they’ve become noticeably more laid-back about the use of their tricks. Don’t forget, they used to be hidden.”
“Another effect of the 99 Gods, then.” Abe rubbed his temples and his low voice radiated sorrow and regret. “We made a mistake when we stayed hidden. I’m worried there won’t be enough of us left to teach the next generation by the time this is all over.”
“Pardon my curiosity, but I’m puzzled about what it’s possible to learn. The Indigo doesn’t make any sense to me.”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t explain unless you join us,” Abe said, focusing on Dave with his magnetic intensity. Dave shook his head at the twenty-fifth or so recruitment attempt by the Indigo. Abe, used to Dave’s response, just shrugged. “So, Dave, how did you get into this?”
“I’ll tell you the story if you’ll tell me yours.”
Abe closed his eyes for a moment. “Okay, okay, I get the hint,” he said. “Talk about going against all my training, though. We never tell Indigo stories to non-initiates, because they either freak out and never talk to us again, or become obsessive groupies you can’t get rid of. I’m trusting you’re made of sterner stuff.” Dave shrugged. “I was born into this mess, and when I was twelve I met a ghost named Kara…”
Dave expected fireworks and enlightenment, something to match his life’s journey after the coming of the 99 Gods. Abe’s obviously amended story didn’t have much of either. The Indigo’s 2nd generation spent most of their time working on their mundane careers, and most of the rest of the time training; his parents’ generation had faced far worse threats back around the turn of the century, and their successes had weakened Hell’s ability to mess with Earth.
“I learned a little about the Hell universe from Uffie,” Dave said. “Do all these Hell invaders come attached with built-in terror effects?”
“Yes. They want us to be afraid of them.”
Dave shrugged. “They’re weak, then.” Like the Watchers, more show than substance. “Unlike the 99 Gods.”
“You do have an interesting take on things,” Abe said, studying Dave as if Dave as a lab specimen. “Your turn.”
By the middle of Dave’s story Abe had noticeably backed off and cooled toward Dave, and Dave hadn’t even gone into much detail about the Watchers. “It’s the intensity of the life you’ve led since the coming of the 99 Gods,” Abe, an intense person himself, said in explanation.
“Dave?” Elorie said, leaning over to him; Dave had just about reached the twin’s birth. “We’re coming up on Roswell.”
He nodded. Abe nodded back, solemnly. Time to go back to work.
Dave reached out and took Elorie and Nessa’s hands. Ken did the same. Dave pried open his mental shields and Nessa triggered the oneness.
The world changed when Dave became one. All feeling of normal thought left him as he became more.
In oneness, the city of Roswell appeared around him as if he stood a hundred miles tall. He probed locations in the city and information flooded through him. Santa Fe hid here, and he had a secondary set of defenses that made it seem to Dave’s shared psychometry and telepathy that the God resided everywhere. Dave had a hunch their purely psychic means would take too long, so he had another hunch and drew out Persona, who in this hallucination of reality sat Zen secretary-like ten feet away, wearing ‘pretend I’m professional’ black-rimmed glasses, feet crossed and taking notes.
Now for the hard part: where was Diana? Dave examined two items of clothing and a toothbrush, all identified as Diana’s, with his psychometry. The link had faded, unfortunately, and he didn’t pick up any useful information. Instead, Dave thought lustful thoughts about Diana, even though he knew she wasn’t exactly his type, but still… He used the fact that since he had sat across from her there had to be some sort of personality link involved because cruddy old men like him always evaluated younger women primarily based on their sex appeal. And boob and ass size. This worked. Dave found Diana down underground, attended to by Santa Fe Supported, barely conscious and in significant pain. No Blind Tom, though. He always had to check whether Blind Tom hung around. Dave had a hunch they had arrived at just the right time. If they showed up earlier they would have had to rescue Diana from Santa Fe in person during his interrogation, dangerous if not fatal. If they had arrived later, the sadistic monsters getting their rocks off by doing destructive tests on Diana’s body and mind to figure out how she differed from normal humanity would have finished their job and Diana would have already died for their pleasure. Dave thought for a moment and laid out a rescue plan, assigning everybody various tasks.
Dave opened his eyes, as did Elorie. Nessa dove into Ken’s arms, sobbing. “Could you do us a favor, Chri
stine,” Dave said, turning to look a few feet further down the arroyo, where the rest of the crew waited, “and keep hold of the twins?”
“You’re not thinking of going in?” Nessa’s mother said. She held a twin in each arm, and didn’t look too happy about it. “You need to stay out here and keep the twins safe. That’s your job, isn’t it?”
“They’re safer with us in a firefight than for ten seconds out of Nessa and Ken’s protective range,” Dave said. “We’re all going in. We’ll all be needed.” Meaning the Indigo would be going in as well.
“We’re also all going to need to keep a tight grip on our tempers,” Elorie said. She clambered up the side of the dry arroyo and took Dave’s hand, not a full immune-style coverage but modulated to keep out everything except Persona’s tricks. Elorie’s trick even worked, most of the time. “Everyone’s going to need to touch me. Joe, your Montreal Supported tricks are going to turn off temporarily.”
“But ma’am…”
“We don’t have time to argue,” Dave said, looking around, grabbing eyeballs and willing their attention. “We’ve got a narrow time window to exploit and we need to do this now.” He looked over at Nessa and Ken. Without asking, the teek and the illusionary invisibility started up. Dust puffed upward and slowly began to settle again, straight down in the still air. “Don’t expect anything verbal out of Nessa and Ken until this is over. Nessa’s been hit where she’s the most vulnerable, in her empathy, and she’s taken Ken with her into nonverbal-land.” Christine gave Abe the thumbs up sign when Dave said ‘empathy’.
Everyone huddled up to Elorie, who moved them all over to Nessa and Ken; she sat down on them both. The round-faced Sibyl, Epharis, and her tall bushy-bearded husband, Jurgen, held hands and put both of their free hands on the Seer, Kara, who put both of hers on Elorie’s shoulders. According to Abe, Epharis and Jurgen were Diana’s parents.