The Code War (3 page)

'Good. I'm sure you'll get on very well
here.' David looked down quickly at Nancy's legs again.

'I want you to come out and have
dinner with me, Nancy. I like to get to know all of my staff. And
th
ere's rarely a chance to chat. You
know, socialise. During the day. There's an excellent restaurant
not far away. It's attached to a hotel. I think you'll like it.
They serve all kinds of good food. Anything you like. How about
this evening, just you and me?'

Nancy looked away
as her smile rapidly waned. She glanced at the
coffee pot. The sugar bowl. The upturned cups. She put her hand to
her head and scratched a sudden itch on her cheek. Then she
breathed in and out quickly. But when she next looked back into
David's eyes her gaze was direct.

'How's Elizabeth?'

'What?'

'How's Elizabeth?'

What? How do you..? How do you know
Elizabeth?'

'Your wife. Elizabeth. Is she well?'

'Yes. She's fine.' David's face
was all confusion. A silence ensued. Nancy continued looking at
him. Waiting.

David spoke
first
. 'Why did you ask? How do you know
about her? Do you know her?'

Nancy paused before replying, keeping
her gaze steady.

'Will
Elizabeth join us tonight? For dinner. It would be good to
meet her too.'

'No. It wouldn't be good.' David was
rushing to get his words out. 'She has no reason to meet you. She
doesn't work in the business.'

'Oh, I thought she was the company
bookkeeper.'

'How do you know that?'

'I make it my business to know
things like that
.' Another pause. 'So,
will Elizabeth join us tonight?'

'No, she can't come. She's busy.'

'Oh. That's disappointing.' Nancy
was anything but disappointed. She could have been interviewing a
candidate for a job, such was her composure. 'Well, in that case, I
can't go either. Sorry. Oh, do you have a piece of paper on
you?'

'A piece of paper?'

'Yes, a piece of paper.'

'I don't know.' David began
searching his pockets while Nancy waited. His smugness was gone,
replaced by worry. He found a company business card in his top
pocket. 'I've only got one of these.'

'That'll do. Thank you,' said
Nancy holding out her hand and taking the card. There was a cheap
ball-point pen lying on the kitchenette worktop. Nancy picked it up
and wrote on the back of the card. Then she stepped forward
purposefully towards the door, forcing David to move
aside.

As she turned the handle and
pulled the door open Nancy stopped and turned to her boss. Her face
was only a few inches from his.

'By the way,' she said
quiet
ly. 'Mel doesn't want to go out with
you either.' She slipped the business card back into his pocket and
then pushed past him through the door and back into the
office.

As the sound of her footsteps retreated
David plucked the card from his pocket and looked at what was
written on the back.

It was his own home telephone
number.

As Nancy returned to her desk at
the front of the shop, victory in her stride, she noticed heads
turn to follow. Her close confinement with David behind locked
doors in the kitchenette had not gone unremarked. They all wanted
to know what had happened and, more importantly, who had come off
best.

Nancy
answered their unspoken question
with her body language. She plucked an abandoned phone from
a paper-strewn desk, heard the dial tone in the receiver and
snapped it back in its cradle with a flourish. She scooped up a
male agent's pencil sharpener and tapped it playfully on his desk a
couple of times before returning his smile with a wink. She rescued
a pair of scissors from another desk that were about to fall on the
floor and handed them to their grateful owner along with a grin.
Her senses were on high alert as she skipped along on her high
heels noticing and enjoying all the curious glances.

But there was something Nancy didn't
notice.

She didn't see the
short figure with the Asiatic features that
followed her, just a pace behind. She didn't see its red eyes that
never left her for a moment. She didn't see the unusual curved
sword that hung from its side. Or notice its military
bearing.

No-one did.
Even if they had looked straight in its direction they
would not have seen it.

When Nancy regained her desk and
sat down
, the soldierly figure took
station just behind her. It continued its watch. It noted her every
move and word. It smelt her blood and heard her pulse. Its Leader
would want a complete report.

Heaven's
Shore

On an outcrop of the last shore on
the fringes of Heaven, far from friends and nearly beyond the
Music's reach, Jabez watched
as Nancy's
image faded from view. He closed his hands together and the globe
reduced to the diameter of a marble. He replaced it at his
side.

Jabez looked
out across the divide before him to the blasted land
beyond. He had not been here before. Few angels came this way. But
after he had finished his mission, win or lose, this rugged,
beautiful coast would forever be remembered as the outpost where
the battle for Nancy took place. A contest such as this for the
immortal soul of a mortal woman mattered greatly and it would
matter greatly for ever.

Jabez turned to look behind him, down
the long pathway he had flown. A wide prairie of dunes and emerald
grasses rolled back to become meadows of beautiful wild flowers and
scented forests before giving way to hills and valleys, lakes and
ice caps. Far in the distance were golden villages, seaborne cities
and airborne farms.

Paradise was neither flat nor
round, instead it was wide and deep and there was as much bustle
and light
in the lands at its core as
there was at its peripheries. He looked at a point a couple of
seconds of light time away, deep within Heaven's interior where a
huge range of snowy mountains raised their craggy peaks in praise.
Lower down, below the snow line, venerable villages with marble
streets and high-vaulted houses made of slow-aged timber nestled
between the mountains' knees.

As his eyes searched them out, the
villages grew in his sight, transporting themselves towards him.
Soon he could see each and every angel going about their day's
work, outside or in, planting and sawing and analysing and project
managing. All of Heaven was dear to him, but one of these villages
especially so for he had known its people since before he died and
came to life. They were his clan.

He watched each one of them, relatives
close and far. He saw them in their fields and he saw them at their
globes. He knew every smile and welcome, every nod and wave.

At the same time, the Music
reached him and washed over him. Jabez's lips opened and his head
went back as the Music of Heaven struck every cell of his body,
exciting his senses and uplifting his heart. The Music was a
constantly renewing, constantly changing, soaring, falling harmony
of drumbeats and voices, instruments and rhythms that delighted the
soul and fed the imagination.

The Music spoke with its own voice
and shouted you're special, you're wonderful, you are so welcome
here. And all of this was true for every angel in Paradise had
earned their place.

Some of those he watched soon
began to feel his presence and raised their eyes to look for him.
They missed him and yearned for news of him. They had heard that he
had been given a difficult quest. Soon they would perceive him and
call out to him across the vast distance in between. He didn't want
that, it would only magnify the heartache he felt.

Jabez sighed heavily as he forced
himself to return to the present. His home village rapidly
retreated to a speck within a dot within a wisp and was gone. The
Music faded to a whisper again as if someone had turned down the
volume. For he was on the edge of Heaven and the Music must not go
beyond its border.

Jabez's breath came shallowly and
rapidly and he was afraid. He plucked the globe from his side and
expanded it. The starswirl inside reached out to his mind, learning
his will. Soon a face came up and looked into his eyes.

'Luke,' said Jabez, softly. 'I'm
glad you're in. I've never felt so alone.'

'So you've arrived Jabez. I was
wondering if you'd call.' Luke removed his Stetson in greeting
before replacing it on his head. 'As for being alone, I think
that's the whole point. It's to help you focus.'

'But why am I here Luke? I mean,
why me? I'm a galaxy-building angel. An engineer. I'm not a
guardian angel. I've spent the last few hundred years designing a
planet fit for human habitation. What do I know about Infernal
schemes and plans? It's not what I've trained for.'

'There's always a reason, Jabez, you
know that. There's something about you that means you're right for
this project, despite appearances.'

'Thanks. But I still don't see
it.'

'No, really,' continued Luke,
whose black face sparkled with humour. 'I mean, you're not that
quick on the uptake. And you're lazy and vain. But the powers
upstairs know what they're doing. You just have to trust
them.'

'I knew you'd have an encouraging
word for me.'

'
Don't
mention it. I graduated top of my Friend In Need class. My tutor
said I was a natural.'

Jabez tilted his
head, deciding to ignore his friend's dry wit.
'But seriously Luke, I've been arranging cosmic storms and
releasing them onto the entire palette of chemical elements made by
the Creator long ago. I was putting a new moon through field trials
when I got this appointment. I've never intercepted a charnel imp
or confronted a satyr squadron. I know as much about a storm
sprite's spear-spell as a new-born deer does of a hunter's arrow.
I'm in construction. Not warfare.'

'Hmmm.'
Luke removed his Stetson again. His African eyes sparkled
like watchfires in the night. But it was a time to listen, not
talk.

Jabez's anxiety was
dominant.

'Luke. You know who I'm up against,
don't you? You know her reputation?'

His
mind
dizzied and he staggered briefly under the weight of his care,
losing his balance. His right wing flared and pushed down, feathers
firming, lightening him for a moment and allowing him to regain his
step.

Then Jabez looked in front of him
across the divide to the fire-blasted plains of Inferno. Nothing
grew in that wasteland. But here and there he could just make out a
soul walking in hungry pain, unable to die, lamenting that death
had been such a cruel cheat.

'She's out there, somewhere, Luke.
It hurts just to l
ook at the place. But
beyond that desert is the centre of Inferno and that's where she'll
be.'

'Yes
,'
replied Luke, heavily. 'I know who you're talking about. Bezejel.
I've been looking her up. She's a former chieftain of the Pecheneg
tribe in Eastern Europe. She seized the crown after outwitting all
the senior commanders in her kingdom. Quite a feat for a woman, in
those days. Very smart. Cruel too. They called her Orphan-maker,
She-spite and Queen Crusher at various times. She was extremely
beautiful. She liked to taunt captured enemy soldiers by flaunting
her femininity over them and then once she'd got them interested
she gave the word to her men and the poor guys were tortured, cut
to pieces or bouldered on great machines. If you happen to get
close to her and she smiles at you, Jabez, probably best to walk on
by.'

'I'll remember that.
Though I wasn't planning to get anywhere near
her.'

'The thing is, Jabez, what you're
forgetting is you've got friends. Me among them. That's our
strength. You're not alone. You're only out there on Heaven's shore
so that you're not distracted.'

'Thanks Luke, I knew I could count
on you.'

'Find out who you need and build a
team.
That's my advice. A team of
specialists. Don't try to work alone. Find yourself a good crew and
they'll support you as well as work for you. They'll give you
encouragement when you need it, strengthen you when you're weak and
stick by you even when you fail. Which you will. From time to time.
Though ultimately you'll succeed.'

'I wish I had your confidence.'

'You
've
got all the confidence you need. It's right that you should be a
little apprehensive. But you and Bezejel will fight the battle in
different ways. Remember, you are not equal. She will use all the
dark arts of her cunning and her knowledge of men and women's
weakness. She'll play on fear, desire, greed, loneliness, lust. She
knows about them. She specialises in human weakness. But you have
friendships, Jabez. And you'll have many more by the time this
thing is over. That's the difference between you.'

'I'm starting to get dewy-eyed.'

'Don't get sarcastic on me, now.'

'I'm not. I just think Heaven has
chosen a most unlikely angel for its champion.'