Sometime later Duncan was relieved of guard duty by Chen. Too awake to sleep, his thoughts churning at high speed, the newest member of Echo Team went looking for its executive officer. He found him a short distance down the hall, sitting watch beside Cade’s wounded form.
Duncan walked over. “Got a minute?”
Riley nodded, indicating that Duncan should grab a seat on the stretch of floor across from him. “What’s on your mind?” he said quietly.
The younger man sat down, glancing once at Cade’s injured form but then turned away, uncomfortable that he couldn’t bring himself to reveal his abilities to the rest of the group and heal their commander.
If it gets worse, I’ll see what I can do. There’s time left still. We’ll get out of here before I need to do anything drastic.
He turned his attention back to what he’d come here to say. “I’ve been doing some thinking, trying to figure just what is going on. Why things keep shifting they way that they do. And I keep coming back to Vargas’s arrogant belief that he could pull off a stunt like this without there being any major repercussions.”
“I’m listening,” said Riley.
“Well, we know that angels are multi-planar beings, right? I mean, they exist in both a physical and spiritual realm at the same time, just as we do.”
Riley nodded, waiting to see where the younger man was going.
“And we know that once the physical body dies, the spirit continues, that death is not the end but the beginning of a new kind of existence.”
A piece of Scripture popped into Riley’s head. “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will all be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality. 1 Corinthians 15:51.”
Duncan nodded. “Right. Clothe the mortal with immortality. Death transforms us into something more.”
But Riley didn’t see the point. “I’m certainly not going to argue with the apostle Paul, but what does that have to do with our situation? Are you intending to become immortal any time soon?” he asked, half-jokingly.
“Not me,” said Duncan. “The angel. Baraquel. We know that it died once. That fossilized skeleton that was hanging on the wall back there is proof of that. And it’s reasonable to assume that when it died, its spiritual nature was separated from its physical one. Its body died but its soul, if that’s what you want to call it, continued on in the spiritual realm.”
“Okay. So what?”
“So what if by bringing its body back, Vargas and his men have upset the balance between the physical and spiritual realms? What if the angel’s spiritual form is trying to reunite with its physical one?”
“What difference would that make?”
“The angel is no longer a creature created and formed by God, but one given life by human hands. That means it’s missing that essential spark of divinity that identifies it as one of God’s own.”
“So?” Riley still wasn’t getting it.
“So think about it for a minute! It knows it’s been diminished; that it is less than it was before. It knows that it is separated from an essential part of its very nature and that the missing piece, that divine soul if you will, is still out there somewhere. It obviously has power, great power even, but it is still less than it was before. It knows it. What would you do in that situation?” Duncan didn’t wait for him to answer. “You’d do everything you could to make yourself whole again, wouldn’t you?”
Riley couldn’t argue with that. “Yeah, I guess I would.”
“So it’s reasonable to assume that the angel is trying to do the same thing, isn’t it?”
Now the other man understood. “And by doing so, it is somehow causing these disruptions around us?”
“Yeah, I think so.”
“But how?” asked Riley.
Duncan snorted. “How on earth should I know? I don’t think the mechanics of it are all that important though. It’s the end result that we need to be concerned with.”
“Because every time it tries to bring its soul back across into this side of reality, it is weakening the Veil that much more,” answered Riley “allowing the Beyond to leak into our world.”
“Right now the hole isn’t all that big. But as more time passes, it will get bigger, until eventually it will be too big to contain. When that happens, the Veil will fall. The Beyond will merge with reality as we know it…”
“…and that would be very, very bad,” his teammate finished.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Later that night.
Flynn jerked awake as he felt Cade moving beside him in the semi-darkness. A quick flash of his light told him all he needed to know; the Knight Commander was in the throes of another seizure, the worst one yet. His head jerked from side to side, setting his wound to bleeding again, and his feet drummed a shaky rhythm on the floor of the tunnel while his body shuddered and shook.
“Riley!” he called softly but urgently, hoping the Master Sergeant was close enough to hear his cry, and then did what he could to hold Cade steady as the tremors ran their course. It seemed like forever but in truth was only a matter of moments before he felt another presence and a second pair of hands joined his own.
“Damn! It’s getting worse, isn’t it?” Riley asked in a low voice and Flynn didn’t need the light to recognize the concern and the fear in the big man’s voice.
“Yeah. They’re coming faster now. This is the third one in the last two hours.”
“We’ve got to get out of here and get him to a doctor.”
“Sure,” Flynn snorted. “Let me just whistle up a trans-dimensional taxicab and we’ll scoot right on over to the nearest ER.”
Beneath their hands, Cade shuddered and then went still.
Flynn’s breath caught in his throat, his fear making his heart pound like a drum, and he snatched his light off the floor, not caring anymore about giving their position away to whatever might be waiting out there in the dark. He flipped the switch and shone the light on Cade’s face, holding it steady.
The seizure had stopped; their friend was breathing slowly but normally.
“Thank God!”
The crisis now passed, Flynn and Riley slumped against the wall on either side of Cade and tried to get their hearts back under control. The sense that time was running out was obvious to them. They had to do something, and do it soon, if they wanted to keep Cade alive long enough to get the medical attention he needed.
“How long do you think we’ve got?” Flynn asked.
“I don’t know. Heaven only knows how bad that head wound is on the inside and those seizures can’t be helping the matter any. If their frequency keeps increasing, I’d say we’ve got several hours, half a day at most.” Riley sighed. “Then again, I’m not a doctor. He could have ten minutes for all I know.”
“Then it’s time to try something new,” Duncan said.
Both men started; they had been so involved in helping Cade that they hadn’t seen nor heard Duncan approach.
“I’m open to suggestions,” Riley replied.
The newest member of the Echo Team knelt on the ground at Cade’s feet. He opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again before saying anything. To Flynn it was clear he was struggling with something, but they simply didn’t have the time to be gentle or diplomatic about it.
“Just say it, for heaven’s sake!” he told his teammate, with more than a hint of exasperation and impatience in his tone.
Apparently, for whatever reason, that did the trick. Duncan sat back and looked him in the face. “Remember the helicopter? That night at the Necromancer’s stronghold?”
How could he forget? They’d tracked the Necromancer and his infamous Council of Nine to their stronghold in the Louisiana swamps, had assaulted the place in an all-out attack to regain the Spear of Longinus that the group had stolen from the Order
. Duncan had been with him in the helicopter hovering over the estate when the Necromancer had called a demon down out of the clouds. The beast had made short work of their vehicle and the pilot barely had time to warn them before they’d plummeted from the sky and smashed straight through the roof of the decaying mansion below them.
“What about it?”
“You almost died that night.”
“Yeah. So?” Flynn unconsciously rubbed his chest; he’d later learned that he’d been impaled on a two-foot piece of steel and it had only been Duncan’s swift medical attention that had saved his life.
Duncan hesitated, and then stumbled on. “When I got to you, you were all but dead. That pipe was sticking right up out of your chest. There was blood everywhere. I didn’t have any choice. I had to do it.”
Didn’t have any choice? Had to do it? What the heck was the kid talking about? He opened his mouth to ask, but Riley beat him to it.
“What did you do, Duncan?” he asked gently.
The younger man looked over at his teammate, as if seeing him for the first time. With an anguished tone, he lifted his hands, held them up before him, and said simply, “I healed him.”
The other two men stared at him in stunned silence. At last, Riley found his voice. “You did what?”
“Just what I said. I healed him. I knew he had only moments left to live. There was blood everywhere and that pipe had gone right through his lung. If he didn’t bleed to death he was going to drown on his own blood. I had to do something.” Duncan glanced back and forth between them, and it seemed to Flynn that he was searching for something. Absolution maybe?
Duncan focused on Flynn again. “When I pulled that pipe out of your chest, the blood started pumping like a fountain and I didn’t even think, I just put my hands over your wound, prayed that God would be with me and...healed you. It’s what I do.”
Flynn could only continue to stare. It was a fantastic story, but yet something inside told him it was all completely true. Duncan had healed him; he had no doubt about it. But what did that mean?
Apparently Riley was trying to understand that, too. “You said ‘It’s what you do.’ You mean you’ve done this before?”
Duncan nodded. “Ever since I was a child. They’d come for miles, the sick and the injured, to see Pastor Duncan and his miracle boy.”
Flynn heard the bitterness in his tone and realized there was more to the story than that, but now was not the time. He steered the conversation back to the present. “Can you heal Cade?” he asked, realizing as he did so that he was almost afraid to hear the answer. Almost.
Duncan nodded. “I think so. Yes. At least, I can give it a try.”
“Then let’s do it.”
Riley grabbed Flynn’s arm, a concerned expression on his face. “I don’t know, man. What if something goes wrong? What if he causes more harm than good?”
But Flynn had heard enough. Deep in his gut, he knew it was their only chance. He shook himself free of the other’s grip. “Look around you, Matt!” he said, staring Riley down. “Does it look like we’re going anywhere anytime soon? If he can heal Cade, then maybe Cade can take us back across the Veil, get us back to our version of reality. It’s our only chance. It’s Cade’s only chance! Look at him for God’s sake; he’s probably not going to last another two hours!”
Riley couldn’t argue with that. Without another word he nodded his agreement. They would give it a try.
“What do you need us to do?” Flynn asked Duncan.
The younger man shook his head. “Nothing, I guess. At least I don’t think there’s anything you can do. It’s up to God, really. I’m just the conduit.”
Riley moved out of the way, allowing Duncan to get close to Cade. As they watched, their teammate crossed himself, bowed his head in prayer, and then, taking a deep breath, placed his hands on the bandages covering Cade’s head wound.
For several long moments, nothing happened. Duncan just sat there with his head bowed and his hands on Cade, a look of intent concentration on his face. Flynn felt his impatience growing thin and was about to say something when Duncan sat back and yanked his hands away from Cade.
“Damn!”
Flynn had never heard his teammate swear before and the oath was startling in the quiet of the corridor, especially given its source. Ominous even. “What is it? What’s wrong?” he asked.
“There’s something…wrong. In Cade’s head.”
“You mean with the wound?”
“No. I mean with his head. Inside his head. There’s something in there that shouldn’t be there.”
Riley didn’t like the way that sounded. “Can you get rid of it?”
Duncan shook his head. “That’s just it. I don’t think I should.” He turned to face them both. “I’ve seen enough to know that Cade’s encounter with…that thing…what does he call it?”
“The Adversary,” Riley supplied.
“Right. I know that his encounter with the Adversary left him with a few unusual traits. Like that thing he does with his hands. Or the way he crosses into the Beyond. He couldn’t do that stuff before, right?”
“Not that I know of,” replied Flynn. He looked to Riley for confirmation and the other man nodded his head in agreement.
“Okay. So that means that whatever else the Adversary did to him, it also somehow gave him those new abilities.”
“So?”
“So we need those abilities to get out of here,” Duncan continued. “I don’t have any control over what I heal. I mean, it’s not selective or anything. What if I heal Cade and end up healing whatever it is the Adversary did to him? What will we do then?”
The three men stared at each other, confounded by the choice before them. If they did nothing, Cade would probably die. If they healed him, they might save his life but might also maroon them all in the Beyond forever. It wasn’t the best hand they could have drawn.
“Wait a minute!” said Riley. “You healed him before without changing anything, right?”
“What? What are you talking about?”
Flynn knew exactly what the other man meant. And suddenly several things seemed to make sense to him. “Back in the hospital. Before we jetted off on this insane assignment. Cade was so weak he could barely lift a hand, never mind walk. We left you alone in his hospital room just before our meeting with the Preceptor. Twenty minutes later the Knight Commander walks into the briefing like nothing happened. There was no way he could have done that on his own. You healed him, right? You must have!”
But Duncan shook his head. “No. I didn’t heal him. I simply said a few prayers and left.”
Now it was Flynn’s turn to be bewildered. “But if you didn’t heal him…who did?”
He never received an answer to his question however, for right at that moment the alert came back down the corridor from the rest of the team.
Something was on its way down the tunnel toward them.
Chapter Thirty
“Flynn, you stay here with Cade. Duncan, you’re with me,” Riley said, turning as he did to head back up the tunnel and deal with whatever was coming their way.
Duncan shook his head and actually took a step closer to Cade’s now still form. “I’d rather stay here.”
Riley knew it was concern for their commander rather than fear that prompted Duncan’s actions, but he didn’t have time for his teammate’s independent streak right now and his answer to it came fast and sharp. “Tough. You’re the closest thing I’ve got to an expert on this place at the moment and that means I need your eyes and ears up front with me. Let’s move.”
Reluctantly Duncan joined him and the two of them moved quickly back up the tunnel to Ortega’s side. All of them were tired, worn out, and confused by the situation they found themselves in, particularly with their leader injured and out of the action. Another firefight was the last thing they needed and yet it looked like that was exactly what they were going to get.
Riley hated days like these.
/> It didn’t take them long to reach the spot where Ortega was standing guard a short distance up the tunnel. His position just this side of a sharp turn allowed him to stay under the cover of darkness while giving him an excellent vantage point from which to observe the long stretch of tunnel they’d already traversed. As Riley stepped up, he found himself unconsciously mimicking their injured leader. “What have we got?”
Ortega didn’t say anything, simply pointed down the tunnel in response. At its far end, a pale glow could be seen moving slowly in their direction. It was still faint and a less observant individual might have missed it but very little got past Ortega and Riley found himself thankful that he had men like that beside him in this place.
“Good work,” Riley said, clapping the other man on the back. As he watched whatever it was move slowly closer, he considered their options. They had yet to encounter anything in this hellish landscape that had their best interests at heart and he didn’t expect it to be any different this time around. Standing their ground probably meant ending up in another firefight. Their other option was to cut and run, try and put as much distance between them and this new enemy as they possibly could, without getting themselves lost in the process.
Not that they weren’t lost already.
Neither option was all that attractive, but in the end it was Cade’s condition that tipped the balance for him. Riley knew that Cade needed time to rest, so he opted to stand and fight.
Decision made, he settled down to wait for whatever it was to get close enough for him to get a good look at it.
It didn’t take long.
The glow became a shape and the shape quickly became a human figure as it continued moving toward them. As it got closer they began to see details.
The figure was dressed in a thick brown hooded robe that completely concealed its face. Its hands were also hidden from sight, tucked as they were inside the voluminous sleeves hanging off either arm. The individual was of average height, Riley would have guessed about five and a half feet if asked, but even under the bulky robe he could tell that the newcomer was of slight build and probably didn’t weigh more than a handful of pounds over a buck ten. The pale glow they had seen was still there, surrounding it, and Riley had the sudden sense that the figure before them was far less substantial than he believed.
Angels Scream (Echo Team Book 2) Page 16