Hammer of the Witches

by Kai Wai Cheah

  “The Unmaker is far stronger and far weaker than you think he is. In Haawiyah he is invincible, and in the realm of deception he is unmatched. But he cannot act directly on Earth; he needs minions to do his bidding.

  “You must draw out and defeat his minions. Without them, he will be sealed off from Creation. That is how you defeat him. As the Divine Plan unfurls, I see an opportunity for you to unmask one of the Unmaker’s most powerful agents. And defeat him.”

  “Who is he? Where is he?”

  “Wake up, Luke Landon. You will see.”

  ***

  In the morning we gathered for breakfast. Canned food again, but it didn’t dampen the men’s spirits.

  “The shooter leaned out around the pillar with his PKM just when we were breaking cover from the ramp,” Ricky said. “He had us dead to rights. I just snapped up my AK and bang, bang. When I got the sight picture, he was down for the count. Didn’t even see the front sight. Luckiest shot ever.”

  “Really?” Bob said. “I had a clear shot. Lined up the front sight post on his head, pressed the trigger, and he went down easy as you please.”

  “Don’t matter who shot what,” Alex opined. “Important thing is, we smoked ‘em without anyone getting hurt.”

  Keith pointed at the band-aids covering his face. “This doesn’t count?”

  Alex waved his hand contemptuously. “You wanna put that in for a Purple Heart?”

  Pete laughed heartily. The rest of the men joined in. Eve ignored everyone, picking morosely at a mass of white and brown strips on her plate. The can optimistically claimed it was hash browns with bacon.

  “You all right?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Just need my coffee.”

  “The instant coffee sucks, doesn’t it?” Pete interjected.

  She managed a slight smile. “That’s not coffee. That’s dark water.”

  “Hey!” Alex called. “The coffee is awesome!”

  I glanced at Eve. “You’re not drinking decaf, are you?”

  She looked at her cup and made a face. “It is.”

  “It’s coffee,” Alex said. “Why would anyone want to drink decaf?”

  “I have to sleep sometime.”

  “Sleep is for the weak!”

  Keith and Alex exchanged high-fives. Eve shook her head slowly, like a mother who doesn’t know whether to scold or praise a naughty child for an unexpected stroke of genius.

  “I missed the festivities outside the church,” I said. “What happened there?”

  “One hell of a fire fight,” Pete said. “After blowing up the entrance, the giants didn’t rush in straightaway. They set up security positions around their vehicles and ambushed the first responders. They blew ‘em away in moments. They were like… snipers with machine guns. Every time they fired, someone died.”

  “You didn’t shoot them?” Eve asked.

  “Not right off the bat. There was no cover around me, and I didn’t need the cops to think I was with them, too. I could have picked off maybe one or two of them, and then the rest would’ve cut me down.”

  “Yeah, same here,” Keith said. “Ricky and I saw the assault team rush past the cafe. We couldn’t engage them. If we fired on them, we’d have put the civilians at risk.”

  “What did you do?” Eve asked.

  “We coordinated our shots to take out the security element,” Keith said. “Snuck up on them and shot them in the head at the same time. But…”

  “But?”

  He sighed and shook his head. “We had to wait until the cops were all dead.”

  This line of work wasn’t about making the best choices. Just the ones you could live with.

  “My call, my responsibility,” I said. “If you’d gone earlier, it would have been a furball.”

  “Yeah. It’s just…” he sighed. “We’re supposed to be the good guys, aren’t we?”

  “Could you have done anything else?” Eve asked. “Could you have done better?”

  “…No.”

  “Then don’t worry about it,” she said. “You did the best you could. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

  Keith nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

  The guys were discussing what they had done, exaggerating their own actions and mocking one another’s mishaps. Ignoring all the shop talk, Eve wolfed down her breakfast.

  She stood, her plate and utensils in hand. “If you’ll excuse me, gentlemen. I have to check on my people.”

  I wanted to leave with her, too, but I had to know what the others were thinking about me.

  As she left, I called out, “Conference room in fifteen minutes. Will needs to speak with us.”

  “You’re not going with Eve?” Pete said.

  “Why should I?”

  He grinned. “Isn’t she your–”

  “No!” she called out.

  “Straight from the lady’s mouth,” I said.

  “Yeah, sure, we believe you,” Alex chipped in.

  “Give it a rest.”

  Pete sniggered. “C’mon, you two were so cozy together. We can all see it.”

  “You’re not gonna believe anything I tell you, right?”

  “Yup!”

  I sighed.

  ***

  The holographic projectors in the office reproduced O’Connor’s haggardness to the finest detail. His cheeks were sunken, dark bags weighed down his eyes, and pale stubble poked out of his chin. He was deadly serious today; he wasn’t even wearing a tie.

  “Our Program, as I recall, is supposed to be top secret,” he stated.

  “What were we supposed to do? Sit back and let the giants slaughter everyone?” Pete protested.

  “All of you were caught on CCTV. Your faces are all over the Internet.”

  “Not our real faces,” I pointed out.

  “That’s the only reason we haven’t pulled the plug on you yet. The brass is telling me, demanding me, to put you on ice. Permanently. There’s no use for covert operators who can’t stay covert.”

  “Are you saying,” I said deliberately, “that if we had to choose between stopping a terrorist attack and preserving our cover, we have to choose the latter?”

  “I… I’m just saying you need to be careful. If those were your real faces, we’d be up the creek without a paddle. As it is, we’re in full damage control mode. I’ve been told to keep a tight leash on you. No more heroics. Nothing that can be traced back to us.”

  “You’re talking as if it’s the end of our world,” Keith said.

  “You guys don’t know?”

  “Don’t know what?” I asked.

  “Watch the ABC News interview with the Oecumenical Patriarch. I’ll wait.”

  I opened another window on the smartglass and tuned it to the Anglian Broadcasting Corporation. Among the latest news was a video interview with the Oecumenical Patriarch.

  On the screen, His Most Divine All Holiness Thomas II sat at a conference table, surrounded by microphones. He was leaning forward, hands clasped in front of him. He wore a simple black exorason paired with a matching kamiklava and epanokamelavkion on his skull. He carried himself with a grave dignity, poised and regal. The only indication of his true rank was the golden hexagram-in-circle he wore around his neck. It was another relic of the church, allegedly crafted from the inert pure aetherium recovered from Meteora.

  He was also the priest I had met inside the sanctuary.

  I swallowed. Hard. Back then, I had too much to process to recognize him off the bat. Not that it would have changed things one bit.

  This was going to be… interesting.

  “The attack on the Hagia Aletheia is an abomination,” Thomas II said. “It is an attack on the people of Amarantopolis; it is an attack on the One, Holy, Oecumenical and Apostolic Church; it is a declaration of war on the Creator himself. We must with one voice condemn these attacks. No Paradise awaits the sinners who commit such atrocities, only the endless Void.

  “I thank the security forces for their valor, especia
lly the ones who made the ultimate sacrifice. Having given their lives in defense of the innocent and the Church, they shall surely be honored in the world to come. I must also thank the members of Hexenhammer, who stopped the terrorists.”

  Questions erupted all around him.

  “Your All Holiness, did you just say Hexenhammer?”

  “Isn’t Hexenhammer a terrorist group?”

  “What about–”

  Thomas II held up his hand. The babbling quickly died down.

  “During the attack, while the killers gunned down my security team, the clergy helped many of the faithful to take shelter inside the sanctuary. As the attackers closed in, a small group of people came to our rescue. Calling themselves members of Hexenhammer and the defenders of civilization, they defeated the terrorists and helped us to safety. Whoever they are, they have my thanks.

  “You may ask, how did they protect us? Among the members of Hexenhammer were a young man and woman. They entered the sanctuary with us. They…”

  His Most Divine All Holiness paused, as through struggling for words.

  “They tapped on the Great Paling. They drew upon the power of the Creator himself to beat back the terrorists.”

  The room fell silent. Even the cameramen had stopped clicking away. Thomas II carried on.

  “How do I know this? They healed their wounds. Bounded into the air to chase the terrorists. Positioned themselves as though they knew where the terrorists were going to go. These powers can only be granted by aetherium. The only source of aetherium in the Hagia Aletheia is the Great Paling. I can only surmise that the Creator worked his will through Hexenhammer.”

  A reporter cut in. “Your All Holiness, why would Hexenhammer defend a church?”

  “I do not know. I can only report what my eyes have seen and what my ears have heard. They did not pause to tell me their reasons.”

  “Hexenhammer is responsible for the attack on Chios,” another reporter said. “They are international terrorists. Are you sure these people are Hexenhammer operatives?”

  “Allow me to ask you this question: would the Creator entrust such power to terrorists?”

  An involuntary shiver ran down my spine. The Nemesis operators looked at me. At Eve. At each other.

  “You’ve got the head of the church in your corner,” O’Connor said. “That’s one… ah, a major coup.”

  “The Creator helped you?” Keith asked.

  I shrugged. “We were under fire. I didn’t pause to ponder the theological implications.”

  “My God…”

  Alex crossed his arms and looked uncomfortably away. Pete smiled slightly at me. Ricky and Bob looked at me and Eve with newfound respect.

  “What, exactly, did you two do?” O’Connor asked.

  Eve and I recounted the first few minutes of the attack.

  “I had to intercept the giants before they massacred everyone in the sanctuary,” I said. “I didn’t know if my rounds would penetrate the iconostasis, so I did the only thing I could do. I felt for the closest source of aetherium and drew upon it.”

  “The Great Paling?”

  “I guess so.”

  “No way…” Keith said. “That’s not supposed to be possible.”

  “What did you do after drawing on the aetherium?” O’Connor asked.

  “I created a tomahawk. Jumped down and took both giants out. Went into the sanctuary and linked up with Eve.”

  Eve took over, and we retold the rest of the story as it happened.

  “How did you two draw on the Great Paling?” O’Connor asked.

  Eve shrugged. I mimicked her.

  “Nobody said I couldn’t,” I said.

  He squinted at me suspiciously. “That’s it?”

  “I’m just as puzzled as you.”

  “Divine intercession,” Keith said. “Has to be.”

  “So you say,” O’Connor said neutrally.

  Lying to them was like knifing myself in the heart. But what else could I do? It was either that or a literal knife to the heart. Or worse. Then again, if Keith thought I had the favor of the Creator, he might be open to keeping Eve’s secret. And mine.

  But this was the wrong time for such thoughts. I had to get them off-topic before we wandered into dangerous straits. Eve beat me to the punch.

  “Regardless of what happened, we can use this,” she said. “With this testimonial, people are going to be more willing to listen to our side of the story. I’ll get in touch with my people. Make a renewed push. We’ll emphasize the fact that we defended the church and that we were not responsible for Chios.”

  “I don’t know how much that will help,” O’Connor said. “Only the Anglians ran the full interview. The other news services—WNBC, Reuters, AGP—they cut out all mention of Hexenhammer.”

  A heartfelt round of curses filled the room.

  “This is BS,” I said. “Everyone in the Hagia Aletheia heard us identify ourselves. They can’t hide that forever.”

  “They’re the media, Luke,” Eve said sadly. “They won’t publish anything that contradicts their narrative. Or anything the government tells them not to publish.”

  “We didn’t have a hand in this,” O’Connor said. “Not that I know of.”

  “But our enemy has enormous influence over the media,” I said. “We shouldn’t be surprised.”

  “I’m not saying I believe all this conspiracy theory stuff,” Keith said, “but… why would they, whoever this ‘they’ is, want to suppress Hexenhammer?”

  “Cui bono,” Eve said. “Who benefits from creating the narrative that Hexenhammer is a terrorist group? If we can answer this question, we know who the enemy is.”

  “Who claimed responsibility for the Hagia Aletheia?” I asked.

  “DW,” O’Connor said.

  Pete snorted. “No surprises there.”

  “But the killers were giants, presumably the same giants who hit Chios and Dusseldorf,” I said.

  “Yes,” Eve said. “Our enemy is using false flag operations to incite a clash of civilizations between East and West. What do they get out of it?”

  “While we’re on the subject,” I added, “this might not just be a terrorist attack.”

  “What do you mean?” Eve asked.

  “If Mike hadn’t warned you off and run to a clear space, what would have happened?”

  “He would have… blown me up.”

  “Yes. Someone had to be watching through his holobuds. When Mike went off-script, he pressed the button. If Mike had stuck to the plan, he would have killed you. But why would a suicide bomber want to do that?

  “Rationally speaking, the best course of action would be to blow up the security booths. There’s a huge crowd there, and it would create a breach for the second wave of gunmen. Why go inside?”

  “To create panic and kill more people,” Pete said.

  “Yes, there is that. But when they breached the church, they only engaged the security element. They didn’t fire on the crowd.”

  “You shot at them, yes?” Eve asked.

  “Well, yes, but it took me a while to gather up weapons. They had eliminated security by then. Did you see what they were doing?”

  “They were… sweeping the church. As if they were looking for someone.”

  “Yes, exactly. If it was an ordinary attack, they would have just shot up the nave. There were lots of people there. Sitting ducks. But the giants just ignored them. This is not what terrorists do. But if your mission is to hunt for someone, you don’t want to get distracted.”

  She paled. “They were hunting me.”

  “Let’s not go jumping to conclusions here,” Keith said.

  “Mike had holobuds, right?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Eve said.

  “The enemy could have seen your face through Mike’s holobuds. Maybe your aether as well. They’re daimons; they can see things we can’t. They were pushing toward the sanctuary. Where you were.

  “You were the primary target. The
Oecumenical Patriarch would have been the secondary target to disguise the true intent of the op. The civilians are tertiary targets.”

  “It’s an assassination disguised as a terrorist attack,” she whispered.

  “Yeah. They’ll use the body count to mask their true target and then spread the word that Dawla Wahiyye did it. DW’s leadership will play along: they don’t know what their overseas cells are up to, and there’s no downside in declaring these ‘mujahideen’ as martyrs of the cause.”

  “Those magnificent bastards.”

  Ricky frowned. “This is… if it came from anyone but you, I’d say they were crazy.”

  “Me, too,” O’Connor said. “At least until I saw the report from Rome Station.”

  “What did they say?” I asked.

  “The evidence from the gunfight is gone.”

  “No way!” Pete exclaimed. “All the evidence?”

  “Yeah.” A troubled expression crossed O’Connor’s face. “The bullets, the bodies, the guns, even the wrecked van. Everything.”

  Eve bit her lip. “How did that happen? Did you ask Luigi?”

  “Yeah. His friends in the Roman police said that the day after the shootout, a group of men showed up at the headquarters and claimed the carabinieri were taking over the case. The paperwork checked out, so they handed the evidence over to them. But Luigi’s friends in the carabinieri said the evidence never arrived. They were told AISI, the domestic intelligence service, was taking care of it. No one knows where the evidence went.”

  “Damn,” Pete whispered.

  “What about Dusseldorf? Amarantopolis?” I asked.

  “In Dusseldorf the evidence disappeared into thin air. Nothing from Amarantopolis yet, but I don’t doubt the same thing happened. Or will happen.”

  “This is some crazy conspiracy theory right here,” Alex said.

  “It’s only a theory if it’s not happening to you,” Eve said.

  “We need to figure out what’s going on,” I said.

  “You’re going to have to do your figuring out by yourselves,” O’Connor said. “Effective immediately, you are benched.”

  “Hey, come on!” Pete protested.

  “Not my call,” O’Connor said. “Upper management says there’s too much heat. You could risk exposing the entire Program. I’ve been directed to cut all support activities. Cyberwarfare, logistics, what have you. Hell, you’re not even supposed to be in Pantopia anymore.”