Extinction (The Divine Book 7) (26 page)

I pulled the blade from his chest, ready to move on to the rest. Then I froze in surprise. The djinn was still alive and unharmed, standing in front of me whole and healthy. He lowered his hand to the point of entry, feeling for a wound. I watched as his fully white eyes changed, the pupils becoming a very human brown.
 

"What have you done?" he said to me, moving his mouth in confusion after the words came out, uncertain of the feel.

I stared back at him, the rest of the escape forgotten. What had I done, indeed? At first, I wasn't sure. I couldn't quite put a finger on it. The djinn was different; I could tell that much. How?

"A little help here," Adam said, noticing me standing limply beside my attacker.
 

I watched as his blade came up, biting into the side of the djinn's neck. He cried out in shock and pain as the blood began to flow.

Normal, human blood.

"What have you done to me?" he said again, reaching up to touch the wound, his life force leaking through his fingers.

Human, I realized.

I had dispersed the energy that made him different and returned him to his original mortality.

My mind was ready to spin with the sudden implications of the discovery. If I could do the same to non-djinn, it would change everything.

There was no time to give it any more thought. My defenses fell beneath the magic assailing it, and the additional enemy forces moved in to join the fray.

They approached us with swords drawn, ready to join the fight. Then the djinn who had been tangling with Adam noticed his companion slumped against the wall and bleeding to death. The entire complexion of the fight changed in an instant, the first djinn breaking off his attack and backing up toward the others.

"Sorcery," he said, the fear tangible. "Dark magic."

He spread his arms out, causing the rest of the group to come to a stop behind him.
 

"She didn't tell us we would be killed," he said out loud, to no one in particular.

"No," the others said together. Then one of them moved next to the first.

"This is no longer fun, brother," he said.

Djinn were powerful, immortal, and also immature. They existed to partake in vice. Drinking, gambling, sex. It was one thing to kill for sport when you didn't think you could be killed back. It was another to watch one of your comrades die.

"What did she promise you?" I asked.

"Angels," the djinn replied. "Beautiful young golden angels for our harem."

I laughed. "She lied to you twice then." I moved around Adam, approaching them with the blade. Now that my power was not coursing through it, the glow had returned to a soft blue.
 

"We have no wish to die," the lead djinn said. "Not now. Please, leave our home."

"Is she here?" I asked.

"No. She said we would destroy you and escape unharmed. That she had seen it happen."

I looked back at Adam. My point was proven. Sarah believed too strongly in her visions. She had never learned to take them for the potential that they represented.

He shrugged, a dark, sheepish smile spreading across his face. I looked back to the djinn. I had been preparing for the worst. I had fought my way through their kind before, but it hadn't been easy, and I wasn't thrilled with the idea of doing it again. I was glad I wouldn't have to.

"Show me the way out," I said. "I have what I came for."

The lead djinn bowed to me and waved his hand. They all turned back the way they had come and led Adam and me up a steep, narrow stairwell and into their house proper. It was as would be expected. An abundance of colored rugs, statues, artwork, gold, gems and other finery decorated every inch of the place, along with silk beds, pillows, and brightly colored, translucent cloth, all of it stolen or won or captured over thousands of years. I paused when we passed by the current harem, tempted to free the girls I knew would be inside, most of whom would be slaves to the creatures. My hand tightened on the sword, which I didn't trust the djinn enough to risk putting away or letting leave my grip. I said nothing and did nothing in the end. If I failed in the rest of my tasks, I would be leaving them to an even worse fate.

We finally reached the entrance to the home. The djinn had thinned out as we walked, leaving only the one who had attacked Adam by the time we got there.
 

"Bar your doors as best you can," I said to him as he put his hand to the side of the wall. It shimmered and faded, opening us up to the outside world. We were in the rainforest for sure. I could hear the calls of parrots, see the thick vegetation, and feel the humidity as it began to pour in. "When she finds out you let me go, she won't be happy."

"We can protect ourselves, sorcerer," the djinn replied.
 

I didn't respond to his attitude. I moved out into the open air, turning as I cleared the entrance. It had already vanished back into the trunk of a large tree.

"That was interesting," Adam said, standing beside me. "How did you do what you did to that djinn?"

"I can disperse energy," I said. "Release it back into the universe. When the sword got stuck on him, I figured that might get it free. The side effect was unexpected." I felt my heart begin to beat a little more rapidly. Unexpected, and potentially valuable. If I could do the same to Sarah, I could save her from herself without having to take her life.
 

Of course, I didn't know if it would work on true Divine. There was only one way to find out.

"So, now what?" he said. "You came to rescue me for a reason. I'd love to know what it is."

"I got you out of there, and away from Sarah. You owe me. If you want back in His good graces, you'll do your best to help me out, no tricks."

He scowled a little but nodded. "No tricks."

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry about your girlfriend."

"Don't ever talk about her, Landon," he snapped. "You have no idea."

I didn't press the issue. "I need you to tell me everything you know about the Fist of God."

"Why?"

"Gervais and a son of Lucifer have control of one of them. They want to use it against Sarah, and then to begin waging war against everything until they've satisfied their hunger for power."

"They're demons," Adam said. "They can never satisfy their hunger for power."

"Exactly. The son of Satan, Zifah, is able to control the Fist remotely without any obvious electronics. I need a way to either take control of the Fist myself or to interrupt his signal."

"I'm not well-versed in things of such a technical nature."

"You helped design the Fist."

"Matthias did all of the engineering, but thanks to you Matthias is dead."

Ouch. "You didn't keep records anywhere? Schematics? Anything?"

Adam considered. "In the beginning, Matthias didn't know what he was working on. The entire project was skunkworks, top secret and classified. Yeah, I'm sure he had a backup, but it could be that Gervais already got his hands on it. That may be how they figured out the means to control it."

It was possible. Likely, even. The demon could kill anyone, and become anyone in the process, with all of their thoughts, memories, and knowledge. It would be easy for him to get in somewhere and get the intel he needed. The bigger question was if he would be able to destroy it?

"Where would the most likely location for a backup be?"

"I know the communication tech was earmarked for use in American military combat drones," Adam said. "There were other engineers from DoD-funded companies working on that portion of the project. The U.S. has a number of data centers throughout the country." He paused. "But if you want to be able to access all of it, I would say hacking the Pentagon would be your safest bet."

The Pentagon. Right.
 

I guess it was a good thing I knew someone who not only used to be in the military but also knew his way around a network.

I was nervous, standing outside Obi's room in the hospital. I wasn't in love with the idea of dragging him back into this thing, especially this soon, but what choice did I have?

"Time's wasting," Adam said beside me.
 

I had bamfed from the Congo back to Mexico, grabbed the fallen angel some new clothes, and then transported us here, where I had stood and hesitated going in to ask for my friend's help once more.
 

Mainly because I knew he would give it.

I was about to open the door and make my way in when the door opened from the other side. Obi was in front of me a moment later, a look of surprise taking over his face.
 

"Landon?" he said. "What are you doing here, man?"

He wouldn't remember fighting the Fist, or taking the hit. He likely woke up in the hospital, already healed by the seraphim.
 

His eyes fell on Adam, narrowing immediately. "You son of a-"

"Obi, wait," I said, getting between them. "Don't."

"What the heck do you mean, don't? What is he doing here, man? After what he helped Sarah do."

"I helped Sarah kill demons," Adam said. "That's what angels do. We kill demons."

"Brian wasn't a demon, you asshole."

"He was close enough."

Obi lunged toward Adam. To the orderlies in the hall, it looked like a muscular black guy going after a one-armed man. In other words, it didn't look good.

"Obi," I said, pushing him back with my power. "Use your head."

He paused, scowling. "Why is he here?"
 

"The Fist. He's the only link we've got."

"Damn. I should have guessed."

"You should know, Sarah turned on him, too. He was being held by a group of djinn."

"She's got djinn helping her?"

"Not so much, anymore."

"I didn't know about the Mass," Adam said. "She used me."

"Why would I believe that?"

"I don't care if you believe me, but it's true."

"Whatever."

"Can we focus?" I said.

"Okay," Obi said, standing down somewhat. "Do I have you to thank for this stay? I can't remember anything since Mexico."

"You got hit by the Fist. He broke a bunch of your ribs. The seraphim took care of you."

He smiled. "I remember one of them coming to me when I was half out of it. She was a dream." He snapped out of it. "So you were watching over me while I healed? That's sweet, man."

"Not exactly," I admitted. "I was bailing Adam out. I learned a new trick in the meantime. I may be able to stop Sarah without killing her."

"That's great news."

"It's still a pretty big maybe. Right now, we need to try to get our hands on the documentation for the communication system Matthias built for the Fist. If we can figure out how Zifah's controlling it, maybe we can break his control."

"I thought he was using his power to boss it around?"

"He probably is, but it has to be receiving the commands somehow. Rebecca is a prisoner inside the thing, not a willing participant."

"And there is only one way for it to receive commands, regardless of how the source is generated," Adam said. "I know that much."

"What do you know about military datacenters?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow and stared at me. "Say what?"

"Department of Defense security protocols, black hat hacking, you know, that sort of thing?"

"No way, man," he said, shaking his head. "Can't you get Alichino to hack the Pentagon for you?"

He had before, but there was a limit to what he could accomplish. "What level of clearance was the FOG program?" I asked Adam.

"Top Secret. We didn't want the tech falling into the wrong hands."

Obi laughed at that. "Nice work, then."

Adam glared.

"The point is that kind of clearance is going to require a little more finesse than Alichino can provide," I said. "Social engineering from someone who knows people."

He bit his lip, considering. "If I can get into an account with high enough clearance, I might be able to find a way through. But man, if I get caught, it's going to be that soldier's life that gets completely messed up. Someone who trusted me, or at least in the ideals of the system."