by Siegel, Alex
Everybody looked around. Street lamps provided more than enough light.
Alfred pointed. "There."
The four of them jogged over to a willow tree with unusual yellow leaves. The rest of the trees on the block had shed their leaves in preparation for winter, but the willow tree was still flourishing.
"Now find the alley," Sara said.
Virgil quickly spotted a bronze gate between two houses. An alley beyond had tall fences on both sides. He opened the gate, and the rest of the team followed him into the alley. It had a dirt surface which was free of weeds and litter.
"Now chant 'holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts' while we walk," Sara said. "Follow me."
The team murmured the chant as she led them through the alley. They came to other alleys behind the homes, and she went left or right according to her notes. A few times it seemed like they had made a complete loop. Virgil's nose was blind to ordinary scents, but now he could smell the aroma of fresh baked cookies. He knew they were approaching Heaven.
The sky began to brighten as if dawn were approaching. The fences on the sides of the alleys transitioned to polished bronze instead of wood. The air became hotter and thinner. Virgil saw a boundary up ahead where the dirt path became gleaming silver, and he knew that was Heaven.
Barachiel appeared at the border with an expression of concern on its perfect face.
"Stop," the angel said. "That's far enough. Have you seen anything suspicious?"
"No," Virgil said, "but this passage is unguarded. There is nobody to talk to."
"Then move on. I'll give you the location of the next one."
Lisa continued to shuffle towards Heaven, taking small, uncertain steps.
"I told you to stop," Barachiel said.
"But I want to get into Heaven," Lisa said.
"I'm sure, but you have a sinful soul. You're not allowed."
"Are you going to stop me?"
Barachiel became visibly angry. Seeing the expression on the face of an angel was strange and disturbing. Virgil was reminded that angels and demons sprang from the same source.
"The purpose of the Celestial Contract is to create justice," Barachiel said. "The good shall be rewarded, and the wicked shall be punished. You were more wicked than good in life. If you force your way into Heaven because of a loophole, the validity of the Contract is called into question. You're not just cheating. You're attacking the foundation of our reality. You're spitting upon the Lord's noble intentions. The ultimate consequences are unknowable. This is why Corporal Hartmann's presence here is so distressing. I'm begging you. Don't purposefully compound the damage."
Lisa stopped walking and lowered her eyes. "But it's not fair. I wasn't that wicked. I made a few mistakes, and now I'm cursed forever? I can never bask in God's love? I have no hope of redemption no matter how hard I try? Where is the justice? Where is the Lord's famous forgiveness?"
"You get a little time on Earth."
"Just until the mission is over, then it's back to Limbo for the rest of eternity!"
Barachiel's expression softened. "The rules are what they are, my child. My role is merely to enforce them. Please do not become my enemy. Accept your responsibilities."
"Can I just visit Heaven one more time?" Lisa said. "I won't stay. I promise."
Barachiel paused. "You swear this isn't a trick?"
"I swear."
Lisa took another step forward. Virgil ran over and grabbed her arm.
"Hey," he said. "This isn't a game. Don't get cute."
She pushed him away. "Stop it. I won't break my word."
She walked to the border and took one more dramatic step onto the silver path. The light of Heaven made her skin glow orange. She grinned.
"Satisfied?" Barachiel said.
"It feels tingly and warm," Lisa said, "like a hot bath after being outside on a cold day. Hell is also hot, but it's a nasty, stinging kind of hot. This is nice."
"Can you please leave now?"
Lisa looked at her teammates. She reluctantly walked across the border and returned to Earth.
Barachiel's face showed great relief. "The next passage I want you to check is in Rockford," the angel said.
"That's two hours away," Virgil said.
"Indeed. You'll have to climb a tall tree...."
* * *
A single sunflower was growing through the fence on the path to Heaven, but nobody noticed the weed. The seeds formed an abstract face which had watched the brief drama. If Lisa had chosen to stay in Heaven, the shockwaves would've travelled all the way to the Throne and to Satan's Pit. She had been formally judged and sent to Hell. Becoming a resident of Heaven instead would've cracked the bones of reality. Even the wise and mighty Barachiel had underestimated the importance of the moment.
So close, the face thought. So very close.
* * *
Colonel Knox was watching his men install decorations on the rooftops of Chinatown. They were all Special Forces operatives, but they were doing a fairly good job of pretending to be workmen. They wore jeans, work boots, heavy jackets, and orange vests.
The Chinese decorations had arrived in Chicago ahead of schedule, and they were perfect. The technicians back in Washington had done a fantastic job. There were red globes, dragons, parasols, and wood carvings. Gold paint formed intricate designs. Each item contained a tiny, almost invisible camera.
Knox was the foreman for the installation. He had expected some trouble from the residents, but so far, no serious interference had materialized. Apparently, the locals were used to their buildings being adorned for no obvious reason. The work merely had to appear legitimate. Tourists were taking pictures of the nicest decorations.
Knox turned to Major Weber who was also supervising. "This is going well."
"Yes, sir," Weber said. "If the aliens are in the area, we'll spot them soon enough."
The two men had put on cheap civilian suits and were wearing orange hardhats. Knox carried a roll of blueprints, and Weber had a tablet.
"The next step will be locating their home base," Knox said.
"I'm assigning twenty of my men to this operation, sir. Captain Kyle will lead them. Will that be enough to take down aliens?"
"I honestly don't know."
"Maybe we should ask Washington to send more guys," Weber said.
"They'll ask why. I don't want to let them know we're chasing aliens until we have conclusive evidence. We don't want to look like paranoid fools."
"But we requisitioned the decorations, sir."
"And I wasn't entirely comfortable with that," Knox said. "We'll stick with the resources we have for the time being."
He watched his men lift a Buddha statue using a rope. At this rate, the work would get done by the middle of the afternoon.
Knox smiled with satisfaction.
* * *
The sun was getting low on the horizon as Virgil drove into Chinatown. He was deeply frustrated. In terms of mission objectives, the long trip had accomplished nothing. They had spent thirty hours on the road, touring Illinois, Northern Indiana, and even parts of Wisconsin. They had visited eight passages to Heaven without discovering a single useful clue.
"What a waste of time," he muttered.
"At least we saw some interesting things," Alfred said. "Memories that will last a lifetime... or an after-lifetime."
"But we're right back where we started with no leads."
"Not quite true. We have a much better idea of what it would take to sneak into Heaven. For one thing, we know it didn't happen by accident. Hartmann had supernatural help."
Virgil sighed. He was growing weary of diabolical conspiracies.
He was driving along South Archer Avenue which ran through the heart of Chinatown. On the right, he saw a big restaurant, an acupuncture clinic, an herb store, and a tea house. The chilly weather had cut down the tourist traffic, but a few people were looking around with curious expressions.
Virgil noticed fresh decorations on th
e buildings, and he was barely curious about the reason. The Chinese residents were always celebrating some inscrutable holiday, but he cynically suspected it was usually meant to encourage tourists to spend money. No culture could have so many real holidays.
Virgil turned left and worked his way around a mall. He arrived at a private parking lot where the team had a reserved spot. The rent on the small patch of asphalt was exorbitant, but the convenience was worth the price. Parking spots in Chinatown were always in short supply. Virgil parked and turned off the ignition.
"Now what?" he said in the sudden silence.
"We have to call the Office of Experimental Aero-Physics again," Lisa said. "Maybe we can get them to come out a second time. Then we'll capture and interrogate them."
"That may not be so easy if they're Special Forces operatives in disguise."
"You and I can take them."
Virgil pressed his lips together. She was probably right, but the fight would be nasty.
"I have a better idea," Alfred said. "Let's take a break for an hour or two. We've earned it. We'll meet again later."
Virgil nodded. He wasn't physically tired, but he could use a mental break.
He decided to visit Mei. He got out of the car and looked up at a red paper dragon hanging on a wall. Nicer than the usual cheap, crappy decorations, he thought. I wonder who paid for it.
Chapter Seven
The phone on Colonel Knox's desk rang.
He grabbed the handset. "Yes?"
"We found them, sir!" a man answered. "Come to security, please."
Knox hung up the phone, jumped out of his chair, and jogged out of his office. He ran up the stairs of the house taking two at a time. He arrived at a spare bedroom which the Unit had turned into a makeshift surveillance control room. All the video feeds from Chinatown came here. A stack of computers in the corner performed facial recognition in real-time.
Four men were sitting at consoles. Knox went to the leader of the surveillance team and said, "What do you got?"
"Watch this, sir," the leader said.
He played back a video recording which showed four people getting out of a car. Knox recognized three from the photographs taken in the coffee shop. The fourth was a tall, athletic, African-American woman.
Knox clenched his right fist triumphantly. "Yes!"
"We're tracking them, sir," the console operator said.
"Get all the operatives in Chinatown involved. I want eyeballs on targets, not just cameras. While we're at it, scramble the signals intelligence squad and put up some drones. Blanket coverage of the whole neighborhood. Let's throw everything we got at this."
"Yes, sir."
* * *
Virgil walked up to Li and Li's Electronics Boutique. Even though it was getting late in the day, the store would be open for another few hours. The Li's did their best business after the sun went down. The father sold phones and accessories, while the daughter made fake identification for Chinese immigrants.
Virgil entered the door and heard a cheerful chime.
Mr. Li was standing behind the cash register. He had a white shirt with silk loops for buttonholes. A natural smile made the corners of his eyes wrinkle. He watched Virgil with a hint of wariness in his brown eyes.
"Hello," Virgil said in a friendly tone.
"I haven't seen you in a couple of days," Mr. Li said. "Usually, you spend so much time with my daughter, it's like I have an extra son."
"I've been working."
"Oh? Haven't caught that time-travelling terrorist yet?"
"We're still chasing him. That's what I was doing yesterday and today. But we just picked up a gamma radiation signature reading on our tricorders. I'm hopeful it will turn into a fruitful lead. The good news is we don't think he built that atomic bomb yet, so Chicago is still safe, for now."
Mr. Li's face showed no reaction. He just stared at Virgil calmly.
"Do you think I'm lying?" Virgil said.
"I know you are. That story was ridiculous when I first heard it. I don't know why I believed it for so long."
"Listen," Virgil said, "you're a fine man, a true gentleman. I hate lying to you, but I'm not in a position where I can disclose the truth. I'm under orders. All I can tell you is I'm not a criminal. My work is entirely legitimate."
"Does Mei know the truth?" Mr. Li said.
Virgil hesitated. "Yes, but please don't ask her. She could get into a lot of trouble."
"With you?"
"With my management."
Mr. Li crossed his arms and sighed. "You've turned my daughter against me."
"No. She still loves you, and I feel nothing but respect for you. Please don't see this situation as adversarial."
"In my experience, secret things are dangerous things. Is Mei in any danger?"
"Not to my knowledge," Virgil said, but then he remembered her concerns yesterday. "And I promise I will keep her safe."
"Until you stop loving her. I was a young man once. I know how these things go. One day, another pretty face will turn your head, and my daughter will be yesterday's fortune cookie."
Virgil wasn't actually young at all. Mr. Li had a valid concern though. Virgil might have to return to Limbo someday.
"I will do the best I can."
Mr. Li frowned. "Go and see your darling girlfriend." He waved dismissively. "I can't stop you."
Virgil felt bad, but there was nothing else to say. He went to the back room and entered Mei's secret workshop.
She turned from her computer and looked at him. "You're finally back. I was getting worried."
"I know I should've called, but I was preoccupied. You could've called me."
"I tracked your location. You were all over the state."
"We were visiting secret passages to Heaven," Virgil said.
"What are those?"
He realized Mei had missed all the recent developments, and he wasn't sure how much he could tell her. Mortals weren't supposed to know about the passages. Mei already had an unhealthy amount of forbidden knowledge in her head.
"Never mind," he said. "The trip was a bust anyway. I just dropped by to say hi and maybe take you out to dinner."
"I don't like eating with you. You don't eat. You just stare at me while I chew. It's weird."
"I can't eat, but watching you helps me remember what it was like."
"It's still weird," she said.
"Then how about a walk?"
"Isn't it cold and dark? Not the best time for a romantic stroll."
Virgil realized she had a point. The dark was only a small nuisance to him, and he couldn't care less about the cold, but she was sensitive to both.
"Will you give me a kiss at least?" he said.
"Sure," she said. "I can do that."
Mei stood and came over to him. They kissed on the lips politely at first. He caressed her back, and she responded by pressing her body against his. She finally warmed up a little and kissed with real passion. Even though he didn't have a heart like a normal man, or even hormones, excitement made him feel alive again. He wanted the kiss to last forever.
They separated.
Virgil contemplated their relationship for a moment. It definitely ran hot and cold. Some days she couldn't get enough of him, but on other days, she feared the monster he truly was. He couldn't blame her. His demonic body was always looking for an excuse to create carnage and mayhem. Virgil had to fight to maintain control.
"I'll get back to work now," he said.
Mei smiled. "Good luck."
"Thanks. And you stay safe."
He left the workshop.
He trotted across Chinatown towards the basement headquarters of the First Circle Club. He arrived at the alley after a couple of minutes. Lightbulbs in rusty fixtures created pools of illumination, but most of the alley was dark.
He spotted a flash of movement at the far end. He watched patiently for a little while but didn't see anything else. Probably a cat, he thought.
Vir
gil resumed walking behind a row of restaurants. Bags of garbage in dumpsters were dripping fluids, but it was too cold for flies. He carefully avoided the puddles and soon reached the concrete staircase behind Red Palace Antiques. He jogged down to the door below.
"It's open!" Alfred called out.
Virgil pushed open the door and walked into the basement. His teammates were sitting on the comfortable furniture.
"Ready to talk about a plan?" he said.
"I'm still on break," Lisa said as she played with her phone.
He frowned at her.
"Just relax for a little while," Alfred said.
Virgil wasn't in the habit of relaxing but decided to give it a try. He grabbed yesterday's newspaper off the coffee table, sat on a leather chair, and read.
* * *
Colonel Knox was staring at an image on a surveillance monitor. It showed the windows of a basement at the bottom of a concrete staircase. Light streamed from the windows, but the oblique angle prevented him from seeing through them.
He spoke into a microphone. "Can you get closer?"
A man whispered in reply, and the sound came through a speaker. "We might be seen, sir. Are you sure you want us to risk it?" It was Captain Kyle, the officer in charge of the operation in Chinatown.
Knox gritted his teeth. "No. Better safe than sorry. Maintain your distance. Anything else to report?"
"We're detecting radio signals coming from the basement. They seem like ordinary cell phone signals."
"The targets have cell phones?" Knox raised his eyebrows. "That's convenient. Make sure you track those signals."
"Yes, sir," Kyle said. "The signals intelligence squad is engaged. We're launching the drones now, and they have night-vision cameras."
Knox checked his watch. "Great. Time for me to go. The next experiment will begin soon. Don't make an aggressive move until I come back."
"Yes, sir."
He jogged out of the surveillance control room. He went down two flights of stairs and arrived at the physics lab in the basement. Dr. Harlow and his assistants were working on a spacesuit propped up on a stand.
Knox approached the suit. Shaped steel-alloy plates provided strong protection from head to toe, and Kevlar was behind the steel. The design reminded him of medieval armor. Translucent gold foil covered the bubble helmet. A backpack contained an air supply and cooling system.