Apocalypse Rising (4 page)

Eventually I find a crack. I should not even call it that; it is more of a defect that I can turn into a crack. It is oh so small and it will take a long time to turn it into anything more than an aberration in the entire structure. Say what you will about me, but I am damn good at hiding things from myself. It is not a skill that is all that useful most of the time, but I know secret agents would kill for my powers of self-denial. It is a rare gift.

I work my fingers across the mortar, slowly wearing it away. I scrape until my fingernails are worn away and my fingers bleed. The progress is slow and painful, but I can sense the deformation weakening ever so slightly.

I feel a pull at my concentration, a niggling sensation of some force I cannot ignore. I release my focus and fall away from the wall, drifting backward faster and faster. Reality returns in place of my internal prison sanctuary.

“Justin, I don’t feel so good.” Lilly has woken up and I can read the ravages of withdrawal written across her face.

I shake my head, clearing away the last traces of inner peace, and focus on Lilly. "It will be okay, Lill. You just need a fix is all." I made it sound simple, but neither of us had any heroine on us and looking for it would certainly bring the attention of Albert. "Just close your eyes and I will help as much as I can." I look at my watch before placing my hands on hers. "The bus will be here soon, Lilly, then we'll see about getting you right.”

I did not find the spark, but there is still enough power within me to bring her a little peace, at least for now. The longer she goes without, the more I will need and I do not think I will be able to help her much longer. I can give her a little sense of peace, which will blunt the edge some, but that will only work for a couple more hours. The poor kid needs her fix soon or she will end up sicker than I can deal with while on the run.

I focus my thoughts, pushing aside the danger we are in and pouring as much positivity through the narrow conduit I can still access. I feel it creep along slowly until it drips from my fingertips into her arm. Lilly breaks out in goose bumps; all of the fine hairs that are exposed stand straight as the power enters her. She is out of it enough to not know it is coming from me, but she will sense someone within her thoughts. I hope she will forget the sensation rather than hunt for it as a heroine substitute.

The kind of peace that I am capable of delivering can be quite addictive in its own right. While it will not kill or damage someone physically, it is known to induce madness once it is gone. I do not think Lilly will be at risk because I am giving her so little and she is in so much pain, but this is definitely not a long-term solution. There was a time when I could have cured her addiction outright and maybe I could do that still one day, but that takes time that we do not have.

I give as much as I can before withdrawing my touch and slumping back against the wall. My mouth is dry and my eyes hurt, but Lilly is no longer whimpering where she sits. I close my eyes and wait for my body to produce tears and saliva once more.

It takes a couple of minutes, but when I open my eyes again, I no longer feel like my eyelids are made of sandpaper and swallowing does not make me choke on my own throat. Lilly is looking at me, her eyes wide open, concern and fear etched upon her face. I expected her to be a little more lucid, but still fatigued. She looks like she just woke up from a night of blissful sleep that had ended with a nightmare of bewilderment and terror. "Justin, what the hell is going on?" Her words are halting, a quiet stutter prefacing each word as if she has acquired a chill that makes her voice shiver. "I feel empty, scrubbed clean and left hollow." She is silent a moment, her eyes locked on mine, searching for answers to the question forming in her mind. "What did you do to me?"

Haden walked out of the warm light of the early morning into the cool darkness of Archimedes Tower. It was the plainly visible hidden bastion of Albert Titan, philanthropist, billionaire and forbearer of the Apocalypse. Only Albert and Haden knew the last part. Very few people suspected anything beyond the first two, though whispered rumors in the dark connected Albert to far more insidious pursuits than being the mastermind behind the fastest growing media empire the twenty-first century had ever produced. The occasional sexual or pharmacological indiscretion kept most people occupied enough that they missed the true darkness of his character.

Albert was an expert at keeping his image clean. He dressed in the finest suits, kept his jet-black hair short and in perfect order, and was always seen by the public at his best. He allowed enough rumors to make it past his lawyers and PR office to keep his image from being too pure. People suspected the overly pure of being the opposite, but a little dirt, applied in just the right places, kept them from looking too closely at Albert. Last night's events had the potential to spin out of control, leaving him more exposed than either of them wanted. Though Haden would take some personal pleasure in seeing Albert take a hit, it would be bad for his long-term goals. So something needed to be done about it and quickly.

He walked through the main entrance of the building, strolling past the security guards, ignoring the metal detectors and all of the other mundane security measures that were kept in place. Haden could choose whether or not he was seen by the unaware mortals of this world and the security cameras always distorted a little when he was in view. He often passed in and out of the building unnoticed. It was easier to do his job if people were unaware of his comings and goings. The work of the unholy was best done in the dark, secret parts of the world.

Haden walked to the wall beside the security guards break room. He placed his hand on the fourth granite block from the left, the fourth up from the floor and pushed. He was immediately drawn through the wall. The portal recognized his essence as one that was permitted within and reacted accordingly. His body was pressed and diminished to a point just short of irreversible oblivion. The pain was excruciating, but movement through the fabric of the universe was exhilarating. The combination made the short trip to his personal sanctum exhausting and refreshing all at once.

Haden had always found it amusing the way movies portrayed hidden portals as being mechanical and hidden by some facade of interior design. It was entirely possible, even probable, that such entrances existed, but he thought it was overly simplistic to think that there was no other means of hiding a doorway in plain sight. What sort of idiot hid a room in such a way that anyone could accidentally open the door by leaning against a brick or pulling a book from a shelf? Fiction or not, it was sloppy thinking of the worst kind.

Rematerializing in the middle of his hidden room on the thirtieth floor was always a little disconcerting, but that was a small price to pay for security. His sudden presence caused the candles in the room to flair to life before Haden could will the flames lower. The room was as attuned to him as any mortal space could be, but even there he had to attune his aura to avoid nature's reaction to his decidedly unnatural presence. Food, animals, plants and fire all reacted noticeably to his presence unless he wished it otherwise.

The night had been exhausting, causing his thoughts to wander more than usual. Chasing after Albert's playthings had been little more than a distraction, but it had been time consuming. Finding out that one of the blessed was involved had certainly made the night more interesting, even if it was only one of the Light's lesser servants. Why He would send someone so weak to the lower realm was a mystery, but they say he works in mysterious ways. Haden laughed at his own little joke before heading to an iron door built into one of the walls.

Haden pushed open the door and stepped through, allowing the heavy iron to swing shut behind him and disappear into the cool granite wall. The door was a portal similar to the one in the lobby, but required less power to operate and was a simpler form of the same application. Still no physical mechanics, but it looked like there were as a matter of preference. For all of his otherworldly power Albert still preferred the conventions of using an actual door. Haden tried to accommodate him as much as he could.

Albert's public office took up an entire third of the top floor of Archimedes Tower. It was a sprawling space, filled with conference tables, a bar, and flat screen televisions scattered about the room on every wall (and occasionally the floor and ceiling as well). Two large desks sat near the corner where the floor to ceiling windows of the two exterior walls met. The entire space screamed wealthy, powerful, adventurous and successful; the exact image that Albert wanted the public to see. It is what they expected from him. Details were critical and Haden was there to keep Albert's details in order.

The sounds of conversation drew Haden’s attention to the conference room, a little section of the office where Albert held court with some of the executives and advisors of the various enterprises that he had interests in. The informal nature of the location left most executives either profoundly uncomfortable or overly at ease, either one left Albert with an advantage. The boardroom was as much a battlefield as any place where armies might meet and Albert was a general of unparalleled ability. He knew exactly how to create an environment that gave him every advantage and left his opponents with none.

"The end result is all that matters here gentlemen. If we cannot get control of Hitaratsu this week it will end up costing us millions extra when we have to make the takeover hostile. Now get out there and make this happen." The small crowd of men in business suits got up and headed for the large, ironbound, doors that lead to the elevators. "Jeremy, make sure you send those prototypes to General Perez today. It will make for a nice test run before we start the first production run."

"Should I scrub them first?"

"Yes, but not too hard."

Jeremy nodded and followed after all the rest. Albert stood and waited until the doors closed before turning to Haden. "Did you find them?" The words came out calm and quiet. It was never a good sign.

"I have Hector and his bunch hunting them down for now. I was able to get the number off the cab they hopped so the boys should be able to find them soon enough."

Albert straightened his suit and circled the couches to the open space in the center of his office. He stopped well short of Haden. "Why did you send Hector when you know how important it is to catch those two?"

"Now, Albert, you know I wouldn't have left something so important to someone else unless I had a very good reason." Haden strolled about the space casually, confident in his understanding of Albert.

"So then tell me, Haden what was so important that you left chasing down those two to Hector and risked my displeasure?" His tone never changed, always that steady, calm and dangerous pitch that left strong men weak with fear for reasons they could not fully understand, but Haden was not a man.

Haden strolled to a little bar nearby and poured himself a scotch before speaking. "One of them is a servant of the light."

Albert stood still, allowing the words to roll around in his mind for a moment or two before speaking. "You are certain?"

"Most definitely, I saw the Touch about him as they drove away. He is a weak one, definitely one of the lowest orders, but still one of the blessed."

"Was it the boy or the girl?"

"I'm not sure to be honest." Haden stepped away from the bar still holding his drink. "They were already in the cab and I caught the glow from the back seat, so I know it was not the cabbie."

"Well this certainly is an interesting development isn't it?" Albert walked to the bar, poured himself a scotch and knocked it back, letting the warm burn of it glide down his throat. "This does provide us with a bit of an opportunity though."

"Opportunity?"

"Certainly" Albert leisurely walked across the room toward his desk. "If we can capture this underling there are rites we can perform that will provide some measure of protection or act as an early warning system at the worst."

"I've not heard of such rites," offered Haden. His knowledge of such things was extensive and he was suspicious of rituals he was unfamiliar with.

"Really? That surprises me, Haden. I thought there was nothing about the dark arts that you hadn't already learned." The sarcasm clung to the words thickly. "I found the rites hidden within a translation of some lead bound copper plates found in a cave outside of Damascus. Their discovery has not been announced yet and it never will be. They are really quite fascinating. Their discovery would set the whole world on its head if they were taken seriously."

"Why wouldn't they be taken seriously?" Haden's desire to see the plates was overwhelming, but it was not something he would not let Albert know.

"Because my, Haden, I control the media, and if anyone tried to share it with the public they would be brought before the masses and ripped apart." Albert paused for a second, turned to Haden and said, "Figuratively of course. People believe the shit I feed them on the television and the web. They do not question, they take it as truth and react accordingly. Any poor soul trying to share the truth would be demonized within hours and would find themselves a complete pariah in days while my secret stays just that: secret."

"I guess that does take care of the issue. In the old days it was a lot easier. You killed one or two people and the problem was solved, but now the information spreads so fast a few simple murders just won't do it." Haden was uncomfortable with any technology that was less than two-hundred years old.