The War in Heaven (16 page)

Abaddon examined the map then scanned the gathered assembly carefully. They had been discussing their quandary and what might be done for over two hours now. Everyone had an opinion as to how to proceed. Some
felt very strongly about it, for they had a personal stake in the outcome, but it was Abaddon who would have the final say. One of the most difficult aspects of his leadership was to tell a member of this community that a loved one, or a person whose skills they desperately needed, could not be rescued from his or her awful torments—that the individual would have to go on suffering. If only they had more resources…that they could save all of the truly repentant souls in Hell, but they couldn’t.

“I wish that I could guarantee you that we could monitor the exact locations of all of the demons at the Plunge of Desolation,” said a dark cloaked man visible through the shimmering sphere, “but we can’t. We can tell you where Victoria is at any given moment. We might be able to get a view of the area somewhat ahead of her or behind her, but getting the whole picture is beyond our power. No matter how you proceed, there will be unknowns, risks to take. Are you certain that you need this specific person? Are you certain that she will have the skills that you so desperately need? Aren’t there any others?”

“No, there are no others,” replied Bill, rising from his seat. “We have been all over this before. We took the easier road last time, and now, six weeks later, we are little better off, little closer to solving the problem at hand. We need Victoria van Voth … that is the long and the short of it.”

“But you would have us take a terrible risk that could expose this entire community to discovery with no real guarantee of success,” said the dark angel Eleazar who also rose to his feet. “Suppose one of the team is captured, tortured. What sort of guarantee can you offer me that they wouldn’t reveal all, give Satan the location of Refuge. Even if this van Voth person can do as you claim, and I find that dubious, can one person with this gift make that much difference?”

“Yes, she could,” interjected Bedillia. “It would make all the difference in the world to us. Within a month we could significantly turn the tables on old slewfoot.” Bedillia turned to Abaddon. “This is a mission for humans.
We’re the ones who will take the risk. I for one want to go on this mission, regardless of the danger.”

“As do I,” said Bill. “Vikki knows me, trusts me; it will make it simpler.”

“Sit down, people,” said Abaddon in a calm yet firm voice. “Assuming that I understand this mission correctly, you are asking me to send my chief liaison and the head of my scientific staff without the assistance of my children or any angelic backup. You want me to send you on a mission from which you may not return?”

“That’s about it,” replied Bill. “But we won’t be interrogated. We will all be carrying a power sphere in the shape of a stone to provide the energy for the trip back. If we get caught, we destroy it. The energy released will forever remove that accursed place from the map of Hell. Dr. Kepler has calculated that any soul within about thirty to fifty meters of the explosion will have his or her atoms scattered so greatly that they shall never reconstitute. They will be gone forever. That also includes demons. If things go badly … well, we’re out of the equation, and we take out some bad guys with us.”

Abaddon turned to the glowing holographic projection, their link to Heaven. “Is that correct, Dr. Kepler?”

Kepler nodded. “Assuming that my understanding of the nature of outer darkness is correct, yes it is. Our best estimates indicate that you would be dealing with an explosive force of just over a quarter of a kiloton. That is equivalent to setting off about 250 tons of dynamite in one place.”

“That’s one huge antipersonnel device,” noted Kurt. “Talk about overkill … nothing short of a nuclear bomb has that kind of yield.”

“I don’t think you want to make a habit of setting those things off,” noted a young man standing behind Dr. Kepler. “In Hell, it would have the explosive force of a small nuclear device including the residual radiation. If you have hopes of establishing a new post-Satan order there, it might be nice if it weren’t a radioactive wasteland.”

“Amen to that, David,” said Bedillia.

“And there is one more thing to keep in mind,” said David. “This is not your typical nuclear detonation; it is the result of the combination of absolutely pure energy with an indeed exotic form of matter. In reality, you couldn’t even begin to produce spheres like those on Earth or anywhere in the known universe. In Heaven they would be inert. If broken there, their power would disperse harmlessly into the great sea of power that is God’s Holy Spirit. But in Hell they would release a true cataclysm. Understand, the explosion will not occur in three dimensions, but will extend into hyperspace as well. There is no way of determining the exact consequences of such an explosion in Hell. We have no way to run a simulation … I’m not sure I’d even know how. Detonating those things should be considered only as a last resort. But if you do it, do me a favor and take notes.”

That off-the-wall comment drew raised eyebrows and the like from both sides of the crystal. It was a Davidism. You had to know him to understand it.

Abaddon again scanned the faces of those in attendance, the faces of those awaiting his decision. The silence was long and tense.

“All right, I will agree to this mission, but only on certain conditions. One: at least one of the members of the team is armed. I do not want this operation to end up in what you humans call a firefight; but if necessary, I want you to have the means to cover your escape. Two: we set the maximum time on the ground at two minutes. If Victoria does not show up, or if demons enter the area, you are to do battle with them only as a last resort. Three: and I pray to the Father that it doesn’t come to this: if a member of the party gets separated from the others and is discovered, play the part of a victim. Be demure, submissive. Don’t give them any reason to suspect that you are anything but a condemned soul doomed to the Plunge of Desolation. The demons won’t suspect you as long as you play the part.
I know that it will be difficult, but you’ll make it. We’ll get you out of there on the next pass, I promise.”

“After we take a three hundred foot plunge from a sheer cliff to the rocks below,” noted Kurt. “That is why we stay together and play this thing by the numbers. At the first sign of trouble we pull out.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” said Eleazar. “If one of the humans is discovered, and we have to get them out of there by force…”

Abaddon smiled, though slightly. “I appreciate your concerns, my old friend, but my decision stands. This risk must be taken.” He turned to Kurt. “You will be in command. Your team will consist of Bedillia, Bill, and yourself. Make sure they are totally familiar with the plan and adhere to it. If all goes well, you will leave within the day.”

Kurt only nodded. He had wanted to do this months ago. Now, at last, he would have his chance.

Tom parted the drapes of his quarters to find Bedillia standing in the rocky corridor. He was immediately taken aback. She looked so different from the Bedillia he had become acquainted with. She was wearing a very becoming knee-length black dress made of a velvet-like fabric; hanging from a fine gold chain around her neck was a small shimmering cross.

“Wow,” said Tom who could think of nothing else to say.

“Bill made the fabric for me weeks ago,” explained Bedillia. “And the cross and chain too. I wear it for my daughter, in humble thanks for what Jesus, Son of the Father, did for her.”

“Very nice,” said Tom. It had been so long since he had seen a woman dressed so nicely as Bedillia was right now. For a moment, his mind wandered back to the wonderful green Earth.

“You up for a cool walk,” asked Bedillia, a broad smile on her face.

Tom was a bit wary of the offer. It had been the better part of a week since his counselor had dropped in to see him. Apparently Abaddon had some concerns regarding the long-term effects of using the matter transmuter on the human brain and had assigned Bedillia, their resident psychologist, to check up on him from time to time. “This is not another long, dark hike into the undeveloped caverns for a psych evaluation is it? I assure you, my emotional condition is fine. Using that matter transmuter is not having any adverse effect on me. If anything, it has sharpened my ability to focus my thoughts.”

Bedillia’s smile faded. “No, Tom, it has nothing to do with that. I just wanted to talk to you.” There was a pause. “I need to talk to you.”

Right now Tom felt about six inches tall. He’d jumped to conclusions. Maybe the stress and frustration of the work was getting to him. “I’m sorry, Bedillia, I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I’d love to take a walk with you, even a cool one.”

Bedillia’s irrepressible smile slowly returned. “I have a place I want to show you; it won’t take very long. I promise that there will be no evaluation along the way.”

Tom stepped out into the corridor and away they went. Bedillia reached for Tom’s hand; he didn’t mind in the least. Yet, he sensed that something was wrong.

“Did you hear that we are going to go after Victoria van Voth?”

“I figured that was coming,” confirmed Tom. “I guess we have to. I’m not making much headway with that instrument.”

“Tom, don’t beat yourself up over it,” objected Bedillia. “You tried your best. Bill spent months trying to make that thing work. He is a brilliant man, but in all that time he didn’t get half as far as you did. We don’t know
that van Voth will do any better, but we have to try. It might be that we don’t have that thing set up right. Maybe it just won’t work in Hell.”

“Maybe,” said Tom. “Who is going to go after Victoria van Voth, anyway? Are Abaddon and Lenar going to go in with a bunch of his flying buzz saws, cut down the bad guys, and rescue the fair maiden?”

Bedillia hesitated. “No, we can’t risk so heavy-handed an operation as that. This is a surgical strike, not a firefight, as Kurt likes to call it. We are going to sneak in, grab her, and then run before anyone even realizes that she is gone.”

They turned a corner, walked up a corridor lined on one side with metal pipes and what looked like electrical cables. They could hear what sounded like the hiss of steam rushing through one of them.

“We?” asked Tom. “Who is we?”

“Bill, Kurt, and myself,” replied Bedillia. “We will go in dressed like humans in Hell, in the very rags that Satan himself provided us. We will be sure and look the part, dirty and pretty battered. We will even be wearing ankle shackles, just like those worn by all of the humans sentenced to the plunge. The thing is, ours will look genuine enough to fool the demons, but are not barbed on the inside, and can be sprung open in a second with the push of a small pin, thus releasing us.”

Tom abruptly stopped and turned to Bedillia. “No, you can’t…it’s way too dangerous.”

“I’ve done this sort of thing before,” replied Bedillia, who seemed anxious to move on. “Not exactly like this, but I’ve been in harm’s way before, and I’ve come back, just like the bad penny.”

“You’re no bad penny,” objected Tom, “you’re special…at least to me.”

“Thank you very much, kind sir,” replied Bedillia with a smile.

“But why do you have to go?” objected Tom. “I know that there are former soldiers here, a lot of them. Wouldn’t they be a better choice?”

“And one of them will be leading the mission,” replied Bedillia, who was now almost pulling Tom along. “The thing is … I have experience with this sort of thing, a lot more than most. Anyway, there should be a woman on this mission for Victoria’s sake. I’d explain the psychology of it, but it might be better if you just took my word on it. Bill is going because Victoria knows and trusts him. Trust me; I know what I’m doing.”

The two moved steadily upward, following the trunk line of pipes and cables that ran along the wall. As they did, it seemed to become ever cooler. Now the corridor was downright chilly, perhaps in the fifties. Even the crystal lights that were found throughout the caverns were unusually dim in this corridor.

“Where are we going?” asked Tom.

“Out to get a breath of fresh air,” replied Bedillia. “It is unusually warm on the surface right now. I’ve rarely seen it warmer, eighteen degrees below zero. It’s almost unheard of. A breeze is blowing in from the south. Normally the mercury doesn’t rise above forty below.”

“A real heat wave,” replied Tom.

Before them the cavern seemed to end in a solid rock wall, while on their left in a small alcove hung a variety of long black cloaks and boots. Here the cables and pipelines vanished into the wall.

“You’ll need to dress for the weather outside,” noted Bedillia, making her way toward the alcove.

She picked up a pair of black boots and slid her small feet into them, then wrapped one of the cloaks around her. Tom followed her lead, searching for a pair of boots and a cloak that he figured might fit him.

“You know, there are a lot of people here who have never been outside of Refuge since they arrived,” noted Bedillia. “They have no real desire to.”