Chapter FOURTEEN

She could not afford to have any members of her team accidentally shot by nervous soldiers as they came out of an energy fold-away. Damali kept her focus keen. Marlene was sent in first as her remote vision. Once the two seers were on lock and in sync, Damali tried to bring the members into the sanctuary in small groups jettisoned behind pillars, doing that all from the memory of their pilgrimage to the site more than a year ago. Before she could actually see through Marlene's eyes, she could only pray that things within the holy location hadn't been decimated and hadn't been overrun by the walking dead. Even worse was the potential of scaring some trigger-happy MP who'd unload a clip out of reflex.

If she didn't get the first jettison just right, she might have been sending her mother-seer into instant death, but they had to take the risk. Guardians were beginning to pass out, the baby, civilians, and older folks had to get out first.

Guardians began clutching their necks as air became scarce and too hot to suck in. She had to get her pregnant sisters out of there as the floor began to melt shoe rubber and turn soles gooey. Had to get her Guardian brothers out of there to provide cover for the team. Had to not fall down on the hot ground . . . had to keep conscious . . .

Damali! Marlene's voice cut through the broiling oven around her for a moment just as everything went black.

Carlos's head jerked back. Marlene's scream pierced his consciousness and blotted out Cordell's vision. He opened his arms and his wife filled them, her clothes smoldering, her cheek and palms and arms burned where she'd obviously fallen against a scorching surface.

"Damali, Damali, wake up, D!" Carlos shouted, no longer caring if passing forces or spies heard him.

Tobias was at Carlos's side in seconds as Carlos laid her flat on the floor, turned his cheek to her nose, and felt for a pulse. She had one; it was weak, but instantly he began to place his hands a millimeter over her skin to take the third-degree burns from her into him.

"Freshwater, any you've got in the house," Carlos said, wincing as his skin blistered and took the violent injury from Damali's skin into his. "I've gotta hydrate her."

Not even answering, Tobias immediately ran down the hall to honor the request, but within seconds Carlos heard Tobias's weapon report. It wasn't about waiting to see what had happened. Blind, frantic, Carlos jettisoned Tobias to the cave he'd seen in his mind, having no idea what had gone on in the water tunnel. For all he knew, the team could be dead, the water tunnel nuked by conventional weapons.

Standing quickly with Damali half healed in his arms, Carlos was gone in a flash as walkers broke down the front door, came out of the hall, and rushed the living room, snarling.

"I want your permission to send everything we've got into Jerusalem now," Lilith said, staring at her husband as she burst into his private war room.

"And why would I do that, given how wasteful you all have been? After the heavy losses I have just endured, which could take me at least twenty years or more to rebuild Hell to its old capacities, you now want me to go into reserve demons before the Rapture?" He sat back and laughed in a low sarcastic chuckle, staring at the globe and making a tent with his graceful fingers before his mouth. "Are you not aware that if my demon reserves get depleted, our heir will be forced to rule during the Tribulation period at a severe military disadvantage? Therefore," he added, standing slowly, his gaze menacing her even though he continued to smile, "I suggest you not give yourself over to rage and frustration, darling . . . and that you continue to be strategic."

"I have located and injured the pregnant female Neteru, and her team is on the run."

He picked up a goblet of blood and casually took a sip from it, giving her a sidelong glance. "Forgive my skepticism, but I have heard this sort of overconfident bullshit before, Lilith." He set his goblet down very carefully on the war-room table and leaned forward. "Produce a witness."

"Gladly," she said, fighting an openly insubordinate snarl. "Will Iddabaoth do?"

Icy hands grasped his arms and legs, sending shivers of pure terror into his skeleton. The dark cavern felt like a tomb and as he squeezed the trigger on his automatic, the tragic sound of an empty click reverberated off the walls. Yahveh help him, he would be eaten alive.

Tobias quickly pulled a bowie knife from his fatigues and just as suddenly, dim light let him see that he was all alone in the Well of Souls. He quickly put away the knife and dropped the spent automatic weapon as he fell to his knees and began to pray. An inexplicable knowing told him that whatever had been trying to tear at him from the great beyond had to have been spirits protecting this sanctuary.

"I am not a perfect man, I have sinned," he said in a quavering voice. "1 admit that I fear for my wife, for my own life, but I submit to the will of God."

A sound broke Tobias's prayer and made him look up. Footsteps creeping closer in a steady shuffle put Tobias on his feet in search of any small cove he could find to hide in. Every bit of military training he owned took over his mind as he picked up his gun, prepared to use the gun butt to stun a predator before his knife would instantly slit its throat. But instead of a walker or something equally as formidable, a frightened old man stumbled into the enclosure.

Before Cordell could draw his next breath, a strong hand reached out and yanked him against a wall. For a second he couldn't breathe, couldn't fight the gripping strength, but he still tried to free himself in a futile struggle.

"Stop, before you hurt yourself," Tobias said in a low-timbred warning between his teeth. "It's me, Tobias!"

Cordell stopped struggling and Tobias removed his hand from his mouth.

"You weren't supposed to be here!" Cordell whispered, shaken.

"I know," Tobias said more calmly, wiping at the perspiration that wet his brow. "Walkers finally overran the safe house. I don't know how or why, but they did and Carlos jettisoned me here to finish the mission with you."

"Did that boy make it out all right?" Cordell asked, gripping both of Tobias's arms.

"I cannot say," Tobias murmured, and then looked beyond Cordell's shoulder. "I honestly don't know. All I know is that I owe the man my life--he saved me and sacrificed himself back there ... I heard him yelling as I disappeared."

"Then that's gotta be why I couldn't connect--the signal between us just went black and then nothing." Cordell rubbed his palms over his bald head and walked away from Tobias. "It just ain't right. It just ain't right the way the young is dying . . . the ones who could stand and fight against the coming evil is being called home way too young." He turned and looked at Tobias. "So, we gotta finish this."

"Am I not a woman of my word?" Lilith asked, surveying the Old City from their vantage point in the hills beyond it. She brought her black nightmare around to face her council. "I present to you perhaps the greatest battle theater of them all-- Jerusalem."

When Nuit smiled, she offered him an appreciative nod. "My fellow Chairman, this may have been well before your time, but I assure you that, as a man who appreciates antiquity and the finer points of war, feast your eyes on what can only be described as the true art of war."

She waved her arm out toward the sweeping, panoramic view. "The Temple Mount, the Dome of the Rock . . . the Church of the Holy Sepulcher . . . the Tower of David--and we will siege this city like the days of old, when Babylon was at its zenith and the Roman Empire was an unconquerable force. My machinations led those armies into battle to grind Jerusalem under their heels. . . and we will do so again!"

A thunderous demon cheer went up. Vlad rode down the rows of his Berserkers, looking into the glowing eyes of his frontline captains.

Misshapen faces in massive skulls leered back at him. Maggot-infested pelts barely concealed barrel chests as gargantuan arms lifted swords and maces, battle-axes, and spears. Huge Viking helmets gleamed with black static charges of pure fury as riders tried to rein in their nightmarish, demon warhorses.

"There will be warrior angels!" Vlad shouted. "They will open up Heaven to rain injustice upon you, but your reward is worth the sacrifice! The dark empire will rise again! Take the Tower of David as our fortress, lay siege to the streets!"

Another rowdy cheer went up in a deafening roar. Nuit pulled away from Lilith to bring his mount down the left flank of the Berserkers.

"Master vampires to the air!" Nuit shouted. "Darken the already dim sky. Blot out the gray clouds in a carpet of pure night! They must be holed up in one of the three main citadels that we cannot breach. But use conventional weaponry from the standing human armies to blast at their edifices until they crumble to dust!"

"You three are on recon," Lilith shouted toward Lucrezia, Elizabeth, and Sebastian. "As our warriors fall, bring them back. As the humans flee the destruction--poison them, hit them with contagion, and take them hostage until the Neteru team is forced out beyond the sanctuary of hallowed ground."

When the threesome nodded, Lilith rode off to the right flank into a dark void of nothingness. She stopped as the slow, putrid breaths of Satan's Thirteenth pelted her ears. She didn't turn to meet the colossal presence that dwarfed her nightmare and made the frightened beast rear, snorting fire.

"Your bidding, per my master, my queen?" it rumbled. Lilith took a moment to compose herself, narrowing her gaze against the absolute darkness that had bent to address her. "If the Neteru 'Councils rush in and if the archangels come .. . you are our nuclear option. I will not cede to defeat."

Damali sat up slowly as the combined teams gathered around. Five soldiers took note and rushed over, weapons drawn.

"Get back, get back!" the captain shouted at the teams, leveling gun barrels at Carlos as he slowly unfolded from Damali's body. "He has the contagion! Look at his eyes and his teeth. Get back so we have a clear shot!"

Red dots covered Carlos's chest and forehead. But Guardian brothers stepped out from behind columns, and the distinctive clicks of hammers being cocked made the confused soldiers ease their arms down.

"You need to chill," Phat G said quietly into a nervous soldier's ear, pressing cold steel against his neck. "Things ain't always what they seem."

"Ain't nobody contagious. This ain't got nothing to do with you," Big Mike said into a captain's ear, making him feel the gun muzzle at his back. "Tell your men to stand down--you and I don't want nothin' unfortunate to kick off up in here, right?"

"We'll take care of our own," Shabazz said calmly as he dug the muzzle of Black Beauty into one of the lead soldiers' temple.

"Americano, comprende?" Jose said between his teeth, making sure the soldier in front of him could feel the barrel of his 9mm at the base of his skull.

"Just say the word, Captain," Rider called out, while pressing his weapon into a young soldier's cheek. "This is family business and we've got a cure for the man.

You don't want an all-out war inside this of all churches, so my suggestion is you call your squad back. We are not the enemy. The enemy is out there, trust me!"

"You don't want a full-scale shooting match in here with all these civilians, right?" Big Mike warned the captain.

The captain shook his head as civilians and clerics huddled against the walls and altar. "Stand down," he said quickly. "This is not of our concern--they are Americans."

Cordell and Tobias got down on their knees. Cordell held his hands over a small fissure in the stone floor. They listened, straining, until Tobias glanced up.

"You can hear water," Tobias whispered, awestruck. "But the crack is so small. . . maybe the child's hand could have reached down within it. Our limbs are too big."

Cordell nodded. "If it's water, then it had to be blessed . . . and it's gotta be holy water that could cover anything hidden within this cave that's covered by holy rock. But if something goes wrong out here, would you or I want to have that little girl's life on our heads? She ain't nuthin' but a baby. If I die, so what? If she ran the wrong way or something snatched her along the way, could you live with yourself? Maybe that's what the angels were testing to see, who knows?"

For a moment, neither man spoke, their silence answering the lingering question.

"But how can we get the dagger if it is down there?" Tobias leaned in, peering into the nothingness. "It is an abyss. We have no ropes or climbing gear. I do not think I am supposed to send a tactical charge into the center of the world to take out something so revered . . . that could be considered sacrilege."

"If we're supposed to have it, it will come to us," Cordell said sitting back on his haunches. "My old grandma wasn't a black Hebrew, but she had wisdom that comes down through the ages. She said if two or more are gathered in His name, then that's where He is also." Cordell's gaze trapped Tobias's for a moment. "Me and you make two, so let's do that."

"Are you all right?" Carlos asked in a rush, bringing bottled water to Damali's lips.

She nodded, taking the water from him, and then pushed herself up to balance on her own. "Yeah," she said after a long drink.- "They burned us out--or better stated, boiled us out. They turned it into a steam oven. Had to get the team onto serious hallowed ground, and with the heat, and the multiple sends over that distance, next thing I knew I was passed out."

Carlos rubbed his palm over his jaw and dropped his voice. "Next time you get in a box, if there is a next time, you get out first and then pull everybody to where you are. None of this captain going down with the ship--"

"Don't even say it," she warned, her gaze unflinching and her tone nonnegotiable. "Leave them in an oven and--"

"I didn't say leave them in an oven, I said, like they tell you on a commercial flight, put the damned mask over your face first, Damali. If you go down, you can't save anybody else!" He could feel his heart slamming against his breastbone as his voice went from a private whisper to a sonic boom. He stood and walked away from her. Shabazz landed a hand on his shoulder and walked with him.

"It's cool, man, you gonna be okay, she's gonna be okay. Everything is peace. Hetep," Shabazz said.

"Yeah, yeah," Carlos said, thoroughly shook as Shabazz walked him behind a huge stone pillar. "She don't get it, man. I'd take a bullet, the burn, whatever they've got--but I cannot take losing her or the baby."

"We all know that, so pull in a coupla breaths while Mar gives Damali the once-over and Medic does a double-check, all right?"

Carlos closed his eyes and leaned his head back, trying to get his breathing to normalize. He felt Shabazz pound his fist and heard him walk away, but his bones felt like jelly. His body was still shaking from the adrenaline rush that had swept through him when he'd seen his wife half dead in his arms. "God, just give me the strength," he murmured, and let out a long, weary sigh.

The only noise in the cave that could be heard was the sound of two men breathing and the distant gurgle of water. Now that they'd finished their joint prayer spoken aloud they were at a loss for what to do next.

"Can you feel the presence of what Carlos is seeking?" Tobias finally asked, breaking the silence.

"I know it's here," Cordell said. "I can't exactly see it, but I know ... if you understand what I mean."

Tobias nodded. "I am a tactical, I feel things. All of my senses are on alert, but I cannot pinpoint why or where right now." "Yep," Cordell said, craning his neck. "You hear that?" Tobias leaned his face closer to the small fissure in the ground and turned his head to the side to listen, then jumped back. "Water is rising. That is the sound of water rising!"

Both men got to their feet, Tobias helping Cordell up. Within seconds, crystal-clear water gushed out of the crack, making them back away quickly. An object wrapped in soaked red velvet thudded onto the floor as the water rapidly receded. It took them a moment to move. Cordell edged forward first and stared down. "It has a Templar seal on it. The crest in the embroidery."

"Then you open it," Tobias said. "You are knighted, I am not. I will not offend the order."

Cordell nodded and stooped down with a grunt. "All religions are represented at this site ... I don't think you, as a man with a good spirit, could offend," he said, carefully untying the leather straps and unfurling the waterlogged fabric. "Don't you think it's odd that this has probably been down here for hundreds of years, if not a couple thousand . . . and the velvet is still good, ain't rotted away or nothing?"

"I think it's Divine," Tobias whispered, watching intently as Cordell's hands worked with reverent caution to then begin unwrapping old, brown linen from around an oblong, hard object.

Cordell pressed his fist to his mouth as he stared down. An eight-inch, broken piece of jagged wood terminated into a sharp, flat, iron spearhead. At the neck of it was a Roman seal and rank etching. The edges and face of the ten-i'nch blade were corroded with a dark, crimson, tarlike substance that also ran down onto the wood.

Cordell's hands shook as he carefully swaddled the weapon in the cloth again, treating it with the care of a newborn infant.

"Hey, I'm sorry. Maybe you were right," Damali said, rounding the pillar and handing Carlos a bottle of water.

He accepted it from her but didn't immediately look into her eyes. "I never meant you were supposed to leave our team to fry ... or to let Ayana die in an oven."

"I know," she said, touching his face. "Everybody knows what you meant. . . tensions are just running high."

Carlos didn't look at her as he opened his water. "How's Ayana?"

"Fine. Everybody is all right. How are you?"

"I'm all right," he said, guzzling his water. "Gotta get a lock on Cordell and Tobias." He finally looked up at her. "I lost my focus, left my men. Haven't been able to reconnect with them, which tells me there's interference in the airwaves real close by. That ain't a good sign, D. Couldn't even look in Habiba's eyes. If I can't get a lock on two men with extrasensory skills who are less than a mile away, then that means at least one of them isn't still on hallowed ground. I sent Tobias to the only safe place I knew--"

A heavy blast rocked the sanctuary. People began screaming and running with clerics. Mortar fire made huge chandeliers and candelabras crash to the floor amid fleeing civilians. Another shell hit and Damali and Carlos were up at the now-shattered stained-glass windows.

Carlos flung a shield of Heru up to cover the facade of the building as Damali sent four white-light pulses from the tip of her Neteru blade to blast the incoming shells out of the air.

"Tactical nets up!" Carlos shouted, causing every tactical squad member to scramble blue-white charges to dome the building.

Folding away, he joined Damali in her window. His blade touched hers, sending a nova of white light toward the Tower of David to chase the direction of the original mortar fire.

"I gotta get over to the Dome of the Rock," Carlos said. "If they shelled here, they shelled there, trying to figure out which location we're holed up in."

"Go," she said, and then turned back to the window. "We'll hold it down here so you can bring those men back alive."

"We'll settle the score later on what I owe you, Fallen," Lilith said with a wicked chuckle. "You are indeed the best at three-card monte--of the three sites, it appears that you've guessed the right one to shell first."

He returned a half-smile as he looked down at the charred remains of demons that still clung to human conventional weapons. "But it does seem that our female Neteru is quite recovered. Perhaps it's time for Vlad to send in his troops?"

Carlos came out of a fold-away just outside the hallowed ground, not wanting to violate the sanctity of the site. He swept the area with his senses, frantically calling out to Tobias and Cordell in his mind as the ground began to rumble. He watched in horror as a missile headed right for the coppery gold, gleaming dome where thousands of innocent civilians sought shelter. Several quick energy pulses from the tip of his blade exploded them in midair.

"Everything' you send to me, I send back to you tenfold!" Carlos shouted.

Prepared to stave off the next volley, he watched in awe as tracers careened toward the dome and then curved, and went screaming back in the direction they'd come. A massive blast threw him off his feet. In the back of his mind he heard people screaming. Thunder seemed to be coming from the earth beneath him, and dazed, he took a few seconds to realize it was nightmare hooves quaking the ground.

He flipped up, and ducked as an iron-barbed mace swung past his head. Berserkers were on the move! Civilians fearing the collapse of the Dome had fled hallowed ground. Those who had tried to make an escape on foot were trampled under cloven horse hooves, heads severed from their shoulders by huge iron balls with spikes or cleaved clean off their shoulders by massive black blades.

Bodies banged his as he swam in the opposite direction of the zigzagging humanity. Thousands of civilians were moving in panicked herds, rushing first one way and then another as demon horsemen gave horrific chase. Human military ranks were decimated. Tanks and conventional artillery was useless against what came at them. It all happened so fast, he was one blade against an entire demon army--and yet he had to find Cordell and Tobias within a sea of flaming, screaming death.

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