The Cain Prophecy (Lilitu Trilogy Book 3)

by Toby Tate

  “But won’t your human DNA contaminate the pure race?”

  “My mate and I won’t be having children.”

  “Good luck with that when her biological alarm goes off,” Gordon said. “What’s wrong with them? Are they sleeping?”

  “No. And yes. They’re in suspended animation, their heartbeats slowed to almost nothing. I will awaken them when the time comes, and then I will teach them all that I have learned.”

  “So you’re going to create a master race and take over the world,” Gabe said. “Is that it? That’s your plan?”

  “No, Ms. Lincoln, that is not my plan. Regardless of what you may think, I have no desire to inhabit this earth of yours.”

  “Then what is your plan?”

  Cain turned and gazed out at the sea of bodies. “To go to a different world,” he said.

  “You’re taking this thing to another planet?”

  “Yes, but not by flight. The mechanism inside creates a space of negative energy above the craft which it then passes through, like a bridge or a tunnel.”

  “An Einstein-Rosen bridge? That would take an incredible amount of energy to create. What could you have out here in the desert that generates that much power?”

  Cain gazed at her with his silver eyes and she imagined herself falling into them like a skydiver plummeting into a sea of ice.

  “The earth’s magnetic field,” he said.

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  “You’re going to tap into the earth’s magnetic field?” Gordon said. “That would destroy every living thing on the planet.”

  “Some may survive. It will eventually strengthen itself again, in time.”

  Gabe glanced at Abel. “What will happen to the magnetic field?”

  “It will weaken and allow cosmic rays to penetrate the atmosphere, destroying all life,” he said. “It will also create an abrupt change in the polarity of the field itself, and many scientists have conjectured that a sudden change could cause a shift in the earth’s crust. Tidal waves, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions—it would be a literal apocalypse.”

  “That could ruin your day,” Gordon said.

  “Why do you have to do this?” Gabe asked. “Why not stay here and live among us? I’m sure we could find a way to live in peace.”

  “There would be no peace for us here,” Cain said. “We would end up being your masters, and I don’t relish spending my time conquering a race of beings as insignificant as yours. And the radiation that we crave is nearly non-existent on this planet, except for the low doses from the sun that manage to penetrate the atmosphere. We can inhabit the planet I have been shown, where we once thrived long ago, before coming to this place.”

  “Where is this planet?”

  “In a star system as yet undiscovered by your astronomers.”

  “Can we see the power-plant that drives this vessel?” Gordon asked.

  Cain eyed him for a moment, and then said, “If you wish.”

  He led them to the center of the room, and in an instant, they were in another part of the vessel. Gabe stopped and shook her head and then put out her arms to steady herself. She looked over at Gordon, who was rubbing his eyes.

  “Okay, what the hell was that?” he said.

  “It’s the same principal that the ship uses to move through space-time, but on a much smaller scale. A negative energy conduit connects every level of the ship. All I have to do is think of where I want to go and walk through the center section of the vessel.”

  They were standing on a grate above the floor in a spherical chamber, surrounded by weird, glowing greenish light and a thrumming sound that reminded Gabe of a gigantic hive full of angry bees. It smelled of burnt ozone and she felt nausea wash over her from the toxic combination. She hoped they weren’t being irradiated. Covering the inside of the chamber, spaced inches apart, were the same symbols she had seen on the skin of the vessel and along the passageways, all glowing with the same greenish hue. Each of the symbols would periodically emit something resembling an electrical charge which connected to a huge, transparent ball in the center of the room, spaced an equal distance from the ceiling and the floor. There seemed to be something alive inside of it, something fluid, not unlike the parasitic creatures used by the Lilitu. On the ceiling above and the floor below were glass domes of weird, multi-colored lights.

  “The driving force of this vessel is very much like the parasites, as you call them, and is, in fact, alive,” Cain said.

  She hated it when they read her thoughts. It made her feel vulnerable and naked. She stared at the creature inside the sphere as it morphed and undulated, changing shapes as it changed colors in spectrums she had never imagined.

  “So it’s been down here all these eons, alive?”

  “The creature is multi-dimensional, meaning that it exists simultaneously in many dimensions. It can’t die, at least, not in the sense you understand dying. They are composed of antimatter particles, so we harness their power with a sphere of antimatter, enclosed inside a field of negative gravity, surrounded by a special polymer. We use it to move from one world to the next. Unfortunately, the energy needed to magnify the creature’s powers is scarce on this planet, except for the magnetic field that surrounds it.”

  “I see. So these creatures are just slaves to your master race.”

  Cain said nothing.

  “There are no control panels, no electronics of any kind that I can see on this ship,” Gordon said. “How do you control it?”

  “The ship, as you say, is not controlled by conventional means. The symbols that you see on the outer shell and along the walls are like brain synapses, each one with a different function in the control of the ship, controlled by the synapses in my own brain. The vessel is operated purely by brain waves.”

  “You mean anyone could control this ship just by thinking about it?”

  “Not anyone. A human doesn’t possess the capacity.”

  “So how exactly do you go about tapping into the magnetic field? What do you use as a conduit?”

  Cain smiled. “I am the conduit.”

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  Cain escorted the trio back outside the vessel to where his mercenaries awaited. “You can remain here underground and be spared the worst of the initial effects,” he said. Gabe saw the four mercenaries glance at each other. Apparently, they weren’t privy to Cain’s ultimate plans—they were only in it for the money.

  “You mean this thing is ready to go right now?” Gabe asked.

  “It has been for some time. I was hoping to grow another batch of embryos, but unfortunately, you have forced me to change my plans.”

  “I’m going with you,” Abel said.

  “What the fuck do you mean you’re going with him?” Gordon said as he and Gabe stared in disbelief.

  Abel took a step toward Cain.

  “I’m going with you,” he repeated. “There’s nothing for me here. I’m a Lilitu, like you. I belong with my own race.”

  Cain waited in silence for a moment, and then said, “Why should I trust you, just because you killed one of the Saudis? You’ve sided with them.” He pointed a finger at Gabe and Gordon.

  “I understand your confusion. I wanted to meet you in person, to study your vessel, to see all that you’ve done here before I was sure. You see, I also had the visions—of the vessel, of the excavation, of the planet—everything.”

  “I don’t believe I’m hearing this,” Gabe said. “You’ve been lying to us this entire time? Why even get us involved? Why not just come here yourself?”

  “Cain would not have believed me, and I couldn’t have gotten myself out of the institute, in any case. I needed you to get me out, and get me here.”

  “So now you’re done with us and you can just toss us aside.”

  “Let me see your thoughts,” Cain said, narrowing his eyes at Abel. “I want to know if you’re lying.”

  Abel straightened, like a soldier standing at attention and closed his eyes. He seem
ed to go into a trance. Cain did the same. The creature inside the sphere continued to undulate and change shape as Gabe watched. Was it listening to them, picking up their thought signals? A few seconds later, Cain opened his eyes and said, “You seem to be telling the truth, but how do I know you’re letting me see every thought? You could still be hiding something.”

  “What can I do to convince you?”

  Cain glanced over at Gabe, his silver eyes considering her. She felt a chill in her body, like someone had just walked over her grave.

  “Kill her,” he said.

  Abel glanced at Gabe and said, “Very well.” Her eyes went wide and she was about to speak when Abel’s thoughts suddenly flooded her brain like a fire hose filling a wading pool, and then she felt extremely tired—she wanted nothing but to sleep for an eternity, as if her body had decided that she had done enough and it was time to shut down. The last thing she saw was Gordon reaching out for her and calling her name from very, very far away.

  * * *

  Cain bent down and checked the woman’s pulse.

  “Don’t touch her!” Gordon yelled, and was immediately backhanded by one of the merc soldiers.

  There was no pulse. He probed into her mind. Nothing but minute alpha waves. Gabrielle Lincoln was indeed dead. He stood and looked at Abel.

  “Very well—I could use your talents. But if you cross me, you will be killed.”

  “Understood,” Abel said.

  Cain turned and spoke to one of the soldiers. “Take them.”

  “What about us?” the soldier asked.

  “I would suggest staying underground for a very long time.”

  With that, he turned and went into the machine with Abel in tow, the door closing behind.

  * * *

  Gordon stared down at Gabe’s lifeless body as if he could will it back to life. Every part of his brain felt as if it was on fire as a mixture of grief and fury built up inside of him like a pressure cooker. No, no, no, no, this can’t be happening, she can’t be dead, can’t be dead...

  He suddenly wheeled around and eyed the merc soldiers, his eyes burning through them like lasers.

  “You motherfuckers,” he spat. “You sorry motherfuckers. You killed her.” His voice rose in volume as the two men watched Gordon with growing alarm. “You killed her! You killed her!” He suddenly launched himself at one of them, struggling to get his carbine away, intending to shoot both of them, along with anyone else within range. But as he fought to tear the gun from the man, the other one struck him on the back of his skull. Gordon released his grip, and then slowly fell to the ground on his knees. His vision was clouded with stars and the back of his head felt like someone had hit him with a sledgehammer. He used the pain to focus his mind.

  Later Gordon. Later you can kill them all. Right now, you need to get yourself, Gabe, and everyone else the hell out of here.

  He stood up slowly, and then crouched down and gathered Gabe up gently in his arms, put her over one shoulder, turned to the ladder and began to climb. The mercs followed behind, and one of them poked him in the back with the barrel of his carbine, but Gordon barely felt it. At that moment, his mind was so numb that he didn’t really care whether he lived or died.

  They walked around the outside wall to where Scooter waited, with the body of Bio at his feet. “Don’t tell me they killed her, too.”

  Gordon simply nodded as he slid Gabe’s body from his shoulder and gently laid her next to Bio.

  “We have some business to attend to with you blokes,” one of the merc soldiers said in a thick British accent. Gordon couldn’t believe a European soldier would stoop low enough to work for someone like Cain, but then money was a strong persuader, as he well knew.

  “What kind of business?” Scooter asked.

  “You killed two of our mates. I reckon we owe you a little payback.”

  Gordon turned to eye the soldier who had spoken. “Look, Cain has just placed a death sentence on the planet Earth and you’re worried about revenge? I think we have something a little more pressing to worry about, don’t you?”

  “Fucking Americans, always act like you got brass balls,” the man said, getting close to Gordon’s face. But Gordon wasn’t backing down.

  “Yeah. What kinda balls you got?” he said, bringing his knee up into the guy’s groin with all the force he could muster. The man doubled over in pain and Gordon elbowed him in the nose, sending a geyser-like spray of blood through the air. The merc stumbled backwards from the blow and tumbled off the wall down into the excavation area. The other three men glared at them as they tossed their weapons aside, ready to fight.

  “It’s still three against two,” one of them growled. And then the man screamed out in pain and grabbed his leg with both hands, blood pouring through his fingers.

  “No, it’s three against three,” Gordon heard a voice say and looked down to see Bio on the ground, his knife raised, a smear of blood on the blade. Gordon wheeled around, grabbed the nearest man by his collar and yanked it as hard as he could and drove the palm of his hand into the guy’s nose, sending shards of broken bones up into his sinus cavity. The injured man fell back hard on the ground and lay there moaning as blood poured down the side of his face. Gordon glanced over at Scooter and saw that he had another one of the soldiers in a sleeper hold, which seemed to be working, judging by the man’s red face and slackening hold on Scooter’s arm.

  The third merc had stepped back from the ruckus to get his bearings and was about to charge when Gordon dove at him like a linebacker tackling a quarterback. They both tumbled backwards on the floor and came to a stop with Gordon on the bottom. He looked up at the guy, who had to have been over two hundred twenty pounds and all muscle. The man reached down and pulled a KA-BAR knife from its sheath, its blade gleaming in the light.

  “This is where your life ends,” he said, raising the blade over Gordon’s heart. But as Gordon waited for white hot pain to shoot through his chest, the merc’s expression suddenly changed to one of bewilderment, and then he toppled over on top of Gordon, the handle of a knife protruding from his back.

  Gordon glanced up to see Scooter standing over them like an ominous dark cloud.

  “No, this is where yours does,” the big man said.

  Chapter Fifty-Eight

  “Thanks, I owe you one,” Gordon said, pushing the corpse off onto the ground. Scooter extended a hand and pulled him to his feet. “Anytime, brother, anytime,” he said. Gordon saw Bio putting the knife back in its sheath.

  “I’m glad to see you survived,” he said.

  “Scooter managed to revive me a few minutes after my heart stopped. We decided to lay low and wait until you came back.”

  “It’s a good thing you did. We’d be toast right about now.”

  Bio glanced down at Gabe’s body. “I’m...sorry about Gabe,” he said.

  Gordon felt a lump rise in his throat, but fought it back down. “Yeah.”

  A hum began to sound from the excavation behind them and Gordon turned to see the rings on the machine’s fuselage start to rotate, the two outside ones in the opposite direction from the one on the inside. The symbols carved into the surface glowed with the same weird green light they had seen inside the ship.

  “I think we need to get the hell out of here,” Gordon said.

  They followed Gordon into the room where the scientists and construction workers were still reeling from their ordeals with the parasites, and he saw that most of them were awake, some standing, some kneeling and some on their backs or face down on the floor. He asked if any of them spoke English and one of them raised his hand.

  “Tell these men that they need to stay here underground until the craft has cleared the area. You should be safe inside this room.” He prayed that was true, but they really didn’t have much choice.

  “What about Mad Dog and One Shot?” Scooter asked. “They’re still outside, and we can’t get through to them on the radio from here.”

  Gordon glanced
at him. “We’ll have to go outside and warn them.”

  As if in response, the hum of the alien machine increased in volume and the floor of the entire complex began to vibrate, nearly shaking them off their feet.

  “We don’t have time,” Scooter said. “I’ll go; you stay here and keep these people safe.”

  “Fuck that,” Gordon said, turning and heading out the door. He crouched down and picked up Gabe’s lifeless body, put her over one shoulder and said, “We all go.”

  * * *

  The trio gathered all their weapons and made their way back to the room with the various labs and then to its outer door, Gordon carrying Gabe over his shoulder. He felt as if someone had reached into his chest and crushed his heart to pieces, his mind still in shock from the fact that she was dead, but his emotions would have to wait until they all got to safety, if that was even possible. The complex was now shaking so much that the concrete of the bunker tunnel was starting to crack. He was beginning to wonder if the bunker itself would survive, and all the men down below.

  The thirty-degree angle of the tunnel didn’t make carrying Gabe’s body any easier, but he’d be damned if he was going to leave her down there. He would see that she got a proper military burial and that her family knew she died bravely in the line of duty. She deserved no less.

  Pieces were now falling from the ceiling and the hum of the machine was so loud they could hear it through hundreds of feet of sand and concrete. There was no way they were going back down into the bunker. They would have to take their chances outside and find cover somewhere, maybe in the MRAP.