Canticum Tenebris (Wrath of the Old Gods Book 2)

by John Triptych

  The rabbi noticed that he had stopped following him, so he turned around with a smile on his face as he walked over to David’s side. “Oh, you haven’t seen this part, have you? In that case let’s stick around for a short while because the next stage is about to begin.”

  David paid no attention to him as he continued to observe behind the mirrored glass.

  Less than a minute later, a terrible thing happened.

  As the crowd in the other room continued to mill about, the panels on the ceiling had begun to shift as they slid open, revealing vertical holes above. Some in the crowd looked up and pointed upwards, but it was too late. Strange, misshapen humanoids that were the size of small dwarfs and looking like deformed fetuses, instantly leapt out from the holes of the ceiling and landed on top of the terrified people in the room. David gasped as he realized that the twisted creatures were homunculi, artificial beings created by Rabbi Elijah Ba’al’s black magic. But what made the whole scene even worse was that the crowd didn’t seem to panic with the exception of the children. People attempted to get away as more and more homunculi emerged from the holes in the top, but they seemed to react in slow motion. The monsters quickly overwhelmed several dozen of the people in the room. David could see the creatures bringing their disfigured, snarling mouths right next to their victim’s faces as the other homunculi held them down.

  It was then that the nearest homunculus breathed in and began to magically drain the life essences of the sacrifice in front of it. One old woman had her mouth open in shock as a red mist emanated out of it, and the haze was quickly swallowed up by the swarming creatures around her. One girl of about seven tried to climb up to the hole in the ceiling, but another homunculus dragged her down from behind before draining her life essence, leaving a wild-eyed corpse on the floor. An old man tried to push his way past a dozen of the little imps, but they finally brought him down before leeching out his soul.

  Within minutes it was finished. All over the floor were bodies that resembled mummified husks surrounded by heaps of clothing. The homunculi quickly darted back up through the holes in the ceiling before the panels closed behind them once more. Seconds later, David saw the steel double doors in the other room had opened as a cleaning team wearing chemical suits came inside and started to pile the withered corpses on wheel barrows before taking them away, leaving trails of ash from where the bodies were.

  David closed his eyes as his forehead leaned on the mirrored glass. “Feh! All those people, the children!”

  The rabbi shrugged. “Our chief rabbi says it is justified, for the Arabs and the Palestinians are one of the tribes of Canaan. Therefore we are duty-bound to exterminate them without mercy. The Torah said so. At least their sacrifice is going for a good cause.”

  David turned to look at him. “W-Why didn’t they try to resist?”

  “They were drugged before they were placed into that room.”

  “What?”

  The rabbi had a blank look on his face. “You should have seen the first batches we sacrificed to the homunculi, they put up such a fight and the creatures were so hard-pressed that it took hours for them to drain all the life essences from all their targets. From then, on we spiked the internee’s food and drink. It works pretty well since they don’t revolt in the outer camp either. The demand for life essences is growing at an alarming rate too.”

  David had finally had enough. He whirled and smashed his fist across the bridge of the rabbi’s nose. The young man instantly fell on his back as David drove his right heel into the man’s chest. Then he knelt down on top of the stunned rabbi and used his thumbs on the man’s throat to crush the trachea. The rabbi gargled and died.

  Breathing heavily, David stood up and closed his eyes in order to calm himself down. He needed to stash the body away somewhere before it was discovered and the alarm was raised. David quickly moved over to where the door was at the end of the corridor and opened it slightly. As he peered out, he noticed that there was another deserted passageway. He then moved over to where the dead rabbi was and began to drag him until he got to the edge of the door. David then moved out into the second corridor as he tried to open the doors along the passage. The first door led to an unused office, while the second opened up to a supply room.

  David then ran back to the corridor he came from and dragged the corpse into the storeroom. He searched the dead man through force of habit before stripping him of his clothes. In less than fifteen minutes, he was not only dressed as one of Ba’al’s new rabbinic assistants, he also had keys to the whole complex. As he locked the storeroom behind him, David then went over to the office room next door and began rummaging the desk for anything useful. His thoroughness was rewarded when he saw that there was a pistol in the desk drawer. David took it out from the table and examined it. The gun was a Jerico 941 pistol with a full magazine of 15 rounds. Good enough, he thought as he racked the slide to put a round in the chamber and placed the gun behind his jacket before leaving the office.

  The third corridor fronted a glass enclosure. David could see a number of other black suited rabbis performing incantations at the squirming homunculi that were captive in closet- sized vivariums. As he watched in horror, the life senses of the victims in the previous room seemed to be exhaled out from the gibbering mouths of the homunculi and through some unknown technique, drifted out from the top of the glass cages, and then settled downwards again until the crimson gas somehow seeped into an earthenware jar with strange symbols written on it. As soon as one of the containers was filled to the brim, another rabbi immediately placed a clay stopper on the top of the jar in order to trap the life mist. The rabbi then picked up the pot and walked out of the room.

  There was a voice from behind him. “Are you alright?”

  David turned. Standing to his rear was another rabbi. He seemed older than the previous one and had a long brown beard. “Yes, I’m new here so all this has been quite surprising to me,” David said.

  The second rabbi nodded. “I felt the same way when I started last month. But we must remember that we are doing God’s will and that this helps to protect Israel. If you keep that in mind, then all will be well.”

  David smiled. “I will do that, thank you.”

  “Shalom,” the rabbi said before turning away and he headed out to the second corridor.

  David sighed with relief as he kept on walking. The end of the corridor now led into a vast warehouse that looked similar to the factory site in Dimona. There were about three hundred golems in various stages of construction. The farthest part of the vast hall had mounds of red clay that were passed on to hundreds of sculptors and their assistants, who used their hands and various tools to turn the clay pieces into humanoid form. David noticed that the once famous Palestinian artist Khaled Hadawi was still among them, with an armed guard watching his every move. A door across the other side of the massive room seemed to be the only alternative exit so David started walking towards it. As he tried the doorknob, he realized that it was locked so he took out the set of stolen keys from his pocket and began to try them out, one at a time.

  By the time he had gotten to the sixth key, David saw that it fit the lock perfectly so he twisted the door open and stepped inside. Almost immediately, the shock of seeing what was in the succeeding room gave David an urge to step back out, but he was able to control it as he composed himself and closed the door behind him.

  Like the preceding factory hallway, this room was massive. But instead of having corrugated steel and concrete walls like the previous room, this one had gigantic black drapes painted with esoteric symbols all along its walls, giving it an eerie atmosphere. The only light sources for the entire place were from great metal braziers that burned with unnatural green fire; these were situated along the sides of the walls and as well as surrounding an upraised stage in the center of the room. As he looked up, David also noticed that the ceiling had been painted black with strange constellations illustrated using incandescent gold. Over a dozen r
abbis were standing in front of the stage; some of them were carrying Uzi sub-machineguns that were strapped over their shoulders.

  As David walked closer, he finally saw his target. Rabbi Elijah Ba’al was standing on the raised platform with his back to the audience. Beside the chief rabbi was an antique wooden bookstand that had an old leathery book lying on top of it. That must be the true Sefer Yetzirah, David guessed as he stood just behind the other rabbis.

  Rabbi Ba’al had his hands raised as he intoned some sort of incantation while facing a gigantic boulder made of black basalt at the rear portion of the stage. David saw that there was a strange blue glow on the rock that seemed to grow with intensity. Within a minute, everyone in the audience gasped as a giant eye manifested itself as it seemed to float just above the boulder. David’s mouth was wide open as he sensed that the eye was looking directly at him so he tried to hide himself behind the others in the group. All of a sudden, there was a loud noise that reverberated across the entire room as if some colossal gong had been sounded. The huge eye quickly disappeared and the basalt boulder’s glow had begun to weaken.

  “My invocation was a failure!” Rabbi Ba’al bellowed as he turned and faced the group. “The only way this could have happened is if one of you was unfaithful to me!”

  It’s now or never, David thought as he started moving away from the group while pulling out the pistol from the back of his coat. Two other rabbis in the assembly quickly noticed him and cried out in alarm. As David leveled the pistol at Rabbi Ba’al, another rabbi ran onto the stage and placed himself in front of the target.

  David didn’t hesitate. His first shots brought down the other rabbi who stood in front of Ba’al as the other man fell back on top of his target and both men were down in a heap. David hissed in frustration as he moved sideways, away from the onrushing group and jumped on top of the stage to get a closer shot. One of the other rabbis in the group pulled out his Uzi and tried to fire but he had forgotten to rack the slide in order to place a round in the bolt, so it just made an audible click.

  Rabbi Ba’al tried crawling away from the dying man on top of him but he soon saw David standing over him. “I know you, traitor!” the chief rabbi hissed.

  “For the innocents you sacrificed,” David said as he pulled the trigger.

  The first shot hit Rabbi Ba’al on the shoulder and he cried out in pain. The second shot hit him squarely on the forehead and he instantly stopped squirming as his eyes glazed over. Another rabbi from the crowd was able to get his Uzi working, and he fired a full burst at his master’s assailant.

  Several rounds hit David on his back and he fell forward onto the floor of the stage, his body wracked with pain. As he started to bleed out, he could hear screams and the klaxon of a general alarm coming from all around him. His final thoughts were of his wife and that floating eye which seemed to manifest itself again and it looked at him just as he died.

  Tzipi Zim stood on the pier while watching the waves come into the beach. The afternoon sun reflected off the water like millions of tiny mirrors. The baby girl that she was holding had finally stopped crying and was now fast asleep. Both she and David had agreed that the baby would be named after her mother, Leyla. The wharf was largely deserted with the exception of Amel Kasem’s family, who were sitting down on wooden benches just a few feet away. She had known Kasem for a number of years and had been invited to his family compound many times so she wasn’t a stranger. She looked at Kasem’s little nephews and nieces running around the pier and wished she still had their childlike energy. That was when her thoughts strayed over to the memory of David. She let out a single tear before wiping it off with her sleeve. Tzipi knew he was dead. She got that premonition the moment the emergency sirens started blaring all over the city, and the reports on the radio said that there was an incident at a camp near Jerusalem. When the tone of the news reports changed from cautious optimism to preparations for a general evacuation, that was when she knew her husband had succeeded. Tzipi had already gotten to the port city of Ashkelon with forged identity papers to meet up with Kasem’s family. They were set to leave.

  Kasem’s grandmother walked over to her side. “You had been standing there for a long time. Would you like me to hold the baby for awhile?”

  Tzipi smiled as she gave the sleeping baby to her. “Thank you.”

  “I will go sit with the others,” the old woman said as she turned around and headed back towards the stone bench. Along with the five small children, there were a number of middle-aged aunts and uncles who were also there, waiting for the boat that would take them out of the country.

  Tzipi tensed up a bit when she saw a car approaching the pier. She still had a pistol in her waist holster but her worry soon turned to relief when she realized that the car belonged to Kasem. The sedan stopped at the front of the pier and several more of Kasem’s relatives came out. Two of the smaller children ran over to them as Kasem himself came out from the driver’s side of the car and walked over to Tzipi.

  Kasem stood beside her and sighed. “I’m sorry but I have some bad news.”

  Tzipi nodded as she looked away. “He’s dead isn’t he?”

  “Yes,” Kasem said softly. “But he was able to neutralize the target. The last reports I got from my friends that are still in the IDF is that the golems went berserk and started rampaging through the camp the moment that rabbi died. It seems there was a massive battle in the camp so I’m sure David succeeded.”

  There were tears in her eyes now. “We won, but we also lost.”

  “He knew it was a one-way trip, but he went ahead with it anyway. He didn’t hesitate. That’s something to be proud of.”

  Tzipi nodded. Her husband did it for all of them. In her eyes, he was a righteous man who died for what he believed in. In a time of gods and troubles, that was a noble thing. “So now what?”

  Kasem exhaled. It seemed like he was holding his breath for the longest time. “We wait for the boat. We all have papers for Cyprus. From there we will be safe. Then we can decide on what to do next.”

  Tzipi didn’t answer. The one man in her life was gone and the authorities would be looking for all of them. But it didn’t matter now. Israel would fall within days now that the golems couldn’t be controlled. The news on the radio was grim. The Babylonian hordes would soon descend on the country and a new exodus would begin. She estimated that the beaches would be filled with people trying to get on any boat that they could find by this evening. If the ship didn’t come for them soon, they would be lost in the crowds as well.

  One of Kasem’s older uncles stood up and pointed to the sea. Sure enough, a small fishing boat with Greek flags came steaming towards them. As Tzipi walked over to the bench to get her baby daughter, she knew that her journey was just beginning.

  24. The Invocation

  Manhattan

  Mary Arctor gingerly made her way through the corridor in order not to trip on the numerous power cables on the marble floor. Both the Speaker of the House and the Senate President were anxious as to whether any progress had been made with her newly reformed task force, so she felt compelled to find out for herself. Mary had postponed her meetings with the NORTHCOM staff in order to assess the strange requests that Dr. Paul Dane had asked for since she placed him fully in charge of the team. When he had requested that mobile generators be installed in order to provide more power to the museum, she had complied without much protest. Then things began to get even strange. Just a few days after that, Paul made another request, this time for the top cryptography teams in the FBI’s Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit to come and join him in order to work on something. After her reluctant approval, she then received his request that the NSA reactivate its exclusive intranet for his task force. Mary then had to face a barrage of criticism from the Speaker because of the tremendous effort and resources that Paul’s team was now using. Even after she had succeeded in getting him all that, Paul still did not divulge what he was doing. Now that she fina
lly ran out of excuses and obfuscation to the government in Virginia, Mary needed to see something, anything, to keep them off her back.

  One of her bodyguards nearly tripped over a thick cable that had been snaking along the Memorial Hall. The M-4 rifle that he had been carrying had fallen to the floor with a loud clatter as several nearby FBI agents instinctively had their hands beneath their coat pockets, ready to draw their own weapons before they realized that it was a false alarm.

  “Be careful,” Mary said to him as she started walking down the ramp that led to the basement area.

  Paul was leaning over a folding table in the middle of the massive hall. Beside him were Detective Valerie Mendoza and a group of people that Mary didn’t recognize right away. Several teams of cryptographers had workstations along the sides and back of the room and were busy typing away at their keyboards. When the Secretary of Defense had come down from the ramp and walked towards him, Paul glanced her way at first, but then quickly realized who it was as he stood upright and then smiled as he held out his hand.

  Mary shook it. “Good afternoon, Professor Dane.”

  “And a good afternoon to you, Madame Secretary. What brings you here?”