The Glooming (Wrath of the Old Gods Book 1) (44 page)

Standing over her with his boot on her back was a soldier. He pressed down the barrel of his M4 on her neck. She noticed he had night vision goggles over his eyes. So that’s how he saw her. “That’s as far as you go, lady,” he said softly.

Valerie cursed and looked up as she saw Blake walking towards her. The other soldiers didn’t even glance her way as they used a dolly to elevate the cylinder out of the crate, then set it down near a glass display of two buffalos standing in a snowy backdrop. That was when she saw the yellow and black trefoil symbol stamped along its side. “What in the hell?” she shouted. “That’s a nuclear bomb for chrissakes! What are you people doing?”

Blake stood over her as he adjusted the flamethrower pack on his back. “This is a damned pity, Detective. Even with that scar on your face, I still liked you. Now why did you have to go around sneaking up on us like that?”

Valerie was clearly upset. “What the hell is this? This mission is supposed to be a forensics investigation. Why in the hell did you guys bring a nuke in here? I would have never have authorized this! No way Professor Dane would approve of this! I want to hear what he has to say right now!”

Blake crouched down so she could see his stone-faced visage at nearly eye level. “Stop shouting, Detective. I’m under orders to insert the device here at all costs. Now if your SWAT guys make trouble like what you’re doing right now, then I’m afraid we’re gonna have to engage them and that would mean a lot of dead cops. I don’t want to have to do that, but I will if I have to? Now if you behave, we’ll let you up, or do you prefer to be restrained and sedated?”

Valerie nodded. “Fine, I’ll behave.”

Blake stood up and backed away as the soldier behind her withdrew his foot from her back. As Valerie got up, she noticed the soldier with the night vision goggles had taken her Glock pistol, removed the magazine, and emptied its chamber before disassembling it and throwing the parts on the floor.

“Now let me be clear,” Blake said calmly. “My mission orders come directly from General Benteen. If this museum is breached, then he is authorized to order me to activate the weapon. You and your men have ten minutes to get to safe distance before it detonates.”

“I get it,” Valerie hissed. “So you people didn’t even tell Professor Dane about this did you? This whole thing was a government operation from the very beginning and what are we supposed to be? Cannon fodder?”

“I’m just a soldier, ma’am, all this how, where, and why is above my pay grade. I just follow orders,” Blake said as he pulled out a walkie-talkie from his utility vest and pressed on the receiver. “Echo Six to Omega Actual, the device is in play, over.”

Brooklyn

As everyone was confused to what Paul had just said, General Benteen was listening to his walkie-talkie. “Roger that, Echo Six, you will detonate the device on my command. If we lose comms at any time after this, you have full authority to detonate the device at your discretion, over.”

The voice on his walkie-talkie came back loud and clear. “Roger, wilco.”

“What is going on?” Paul said. “Did you place some sort of bomb in the museum? I wasn't told of this!”

“Calm down, Professor,” General Benteen said. “I got my orders direct from DOD. If the museum is overrun, a nuclear device is to be detonated so that the enemy doesn’t get any access to the relic.”

Joe was shocked. “Wait a minute, you got a nuke in there? What about our men?”

General Benteen looked at him. “Don’t worry, there will be ten minutes before detonation, plenty of time to get clear, unless there’s a rapid breach by the enemy.”

Joe was livid. “This is insane!”

Commissioner Donovan walked right up to the general’s face. “My men have families and there are still people holed up in that city. I can’t let you do this.”

General Benteen backed up and quickly drew his pistol. The soldiers near the entrance took the safeties off of their weapons and aimed it at the police. “This is not a debate,” the general said as he once more keyed the walkie-talkie on his other hand. “Echo Six, we’ve lost contact with the basement, send in another team to check it out, over.”

“Roger, wilco,” Blake said over the communications link.

“General, do not do this,” Paul said. “Nuclear weapons are useless against Okeus, he’s a god. All you will end up doing is killing a lot of innocent people. Please reconsider this.”

“I have my orders, Professor.”

Paul took a deep breath. “General, the government just doesn’t have the full picture. We are here in operations, right at ground zero. And I’m telling you that nuking the museum won’t change a damn thing. We tried to fight the thunderbirds and the demons but none of our weapons work against them. We need to find another way to defeat them. Conventional weapons aren’t the answer.”

General Benteen sighed. “Who is this Okeus anyway?”

“He was worshipped by the Powhatan tribes. He is supposed to be the evil counterpart to their chief deity Ahone. The colonists called him the devil. He had been hiding behind the identity of the Aztec god Xipe Totec, but now we know that he’s the one behind all that’s happening in New York City. Detonating that nuke won’t affect him,” Paul said pleadingly.

The general thought about it for a minute. “Alright,” he said. “I’m going to order my men to keep the device on standby until I know more of what’s going on. But if your colleague in the museum can’t work out a solution, then I’ll have my men start a countdown.”

Paul sighed with relief. “Thank you, General. Just give us some time. Please.”

General Benteen keyed in his walkie-talkie again but now all he got back was static. “Goddamn it,” he said as he turned to his radio operators. “See if you can get me the museum team right now.”

For the next few minutes the entire C2 team tried frantically to get into contact with somebody, anybody, but now all they were receiving was white noise.

Manhattan

Blake placed the walkie-talkie back in his belt as he gave Valerie a smug look. “Looks like you heard it from the CO himself, if we lose comms with HQ then we detonate at our discretion,” he said as he turned to the other soldiers. “Duke, take a team and head downstairs to the basement area to make sure everything’s okay.”

One of the spec ops soldiers who was carrying a flamethrower instantly turned and ran off into the back exit of the hall. Valerie saw that there were only six of them now and if she was going to make a play, then she would need some help.

Less than a minute later, they all heard a commotion coming from the front entrance as the sound of running and gunfire reverberated from the hall’s main entryway. All the other soldiers except for Blake immediately began to position themselves behind cover. Seconds later, the ESU field commander, Lieutenant Carbone, ran into the hall along with five of his men.

“Val, I’ve been looking all over for you!” Carbone said. “We got contact in the Roosevelt Memorial Hall, some of those cultists are trying to force their way through the…” His voice trailed off as he realized that Valerie had her hands up in the air. Then he noticed the white cylinder lying horizontally near the far display.

“Carbone! They got a nuclear bomb primed here, we gotta stop them!” Valerie screamed as she dived for cover behind one of the displays.

At that moment, four of the soldiers opened fire from prepared positions. Blake drew his pistol while Carbone turned and ran for cover. Two of the ESU SWAT troopers were shot in the face and went down instantly, while another took two pistol shots in the chest and fell backwards onto the floor. Carbone took a bullet in the leg before managing to get behind a free standing display while glass shattered all around him.

Blake got behind cover as well, just as Carbone fired back at him with his Glock pistol but missed. As a wounded ESU trooper tried to get up, two more rifle shots simultaneously hit his temple just below the ballistic helmet he was wearing and he died instantly. As more ESU troopers made their way into the entrance of the hall, Carbone signaled at them to take cover as another one of them went down from a precise headshot before they scattered. One of the soldiers fired two 40mm grenades from his Milkor MGL grenade launcher. The high-explosive warheads impacted near the hallway entrance, completely destroying one of the large open doors and part of the wall. Some of the wounded cops that were hit began to scream in agony.

A few minutes before the firefight upstairs, Dr. Worlich had just finished talking on the microphone in his headset when he heard a loud noise behind him. As he turned around, he noticed that the video camera had fallen into the concrete floor along with the tripod. “How in the hell?”

And then he noticed them. Two men emerged from the shadows and walked up until they stood a few feet from him. The taller man had a slightly balding forehead with black hair and wore glasses as he helped to support the shorter man, who was old and wrinkly, with a sharp nose and long white hair tied down in a pony tail. Both wore black suits that seemed to blend in with the darkness around them.

Dr. Worlich just stood there in complete surprise, the pen light still held in one hand. “Who are you?”

The old man stood before him as he gestured to the other one to move back and was dutifully obeyed. “I’m Seth Solomon, and I’ve been waiting for you.”

“Hold it right there,” Captain Niven said as she came out from behind one of the crates while she aimed her assault rifle at the two men. The taller man shrieked and put his hands up. “I don’t know who the two of you are, but you’re not supposed to be in here,” she said. “Get your hands up, old man.”

Solomon smiled as he glanced at her. “The only one who won’t be here is you, young lady.”

Dr. Worlich saw something that came out of the shadows behind Captain Niven. What it was he really couldn’t be sure. It seemed to resemble a man but it was transparent, almost like an invisible spirit. The being instantly grabbed her from behind, then threw the young woman across the room with such force that she went right through one of the wooden crates with a loud crash. Dr. Worlich was now too terrified to scream as the shadowy form advanced on him. He could feel a vise-like grip on his neck as he dropped the penlight and grabbed at his throat but all he could feel was his own windpipe being crushed. After a few minutes he slumped down on the floor and lay still.

Solomon subconsciously rubbed at the brass ring on his right hand. “So, now you have two more souls, that makes it a total of seven that I have given you.”

The being turned around. “No, these souls were not sacrifices- they were unwilling. The Hidden One still awaits the sixth.”

Elliot Ledwidge, who happened to be the taller man, just silently gaped in both surprise and terror. He couldn’t believe what he just saw. His master was indeed a magician who had just summoned a ghost to do his bidding, and who just killed two people right before his very eyes. Even though he couldn’t hear what the ghost was saying, it was clear that all the things he heard about what magic were true after all.

Solomon turned to look at his gawking manservant and sighed. “Elliot! Get over here and help me get close to that tree trunk!”

“Y-yes, Master,” Elliot said as he quickly moved over to Solomon, took the old man by his arms and walked him until they were both right beside the petrified tree.

Solomon now pressed his hands against the hardened trunk. They both had been here since mid-morning and had waited until darkness fell, but the basement was locked and so the spirit had told him to wait because other mortals would be coming. Sure enough there was a loud convoy that came in the middle of the night. The wandering cops who searched the place were never able to find them because the spirit being killed anyone that got close. When the time finally came to reveal themselves, Solomon was silently instructed on what to do. As he ran his withered hands along the trunk, he noticed it began to move. It was like putting one’s hands on a man’s chest, he thought as he could see the once rigid bark rhythmically vibrate until a small tear was now visible near its center.

Elliot gasped in shock as the rip along the bark became bigger and finally the inner part of the trunk had opened to reveal something inside of it. Solomon placed both his hands into the inside of the trunk and grabbed onto something sticky and wriggling. When he pulled out, there was a large white maggot the size of his fist squirming in his hands

He turned to face his manservant. “Kneel.”

Elliot was too scared to protest, so he got on his knees as the old man hobbled above him until Solomon’s sticky hands were holding the grub was just above his face. Beads of sweat had begun to pour down his manservant’s forehead. He was so nervous he couldn’t breathe.

“Now Elliot,” Solomon said. “You shall do one final task for me, you are to accept the worm into your heart. Your forgoing will bring out the Hidden God and he shall be free to reign in this world once more.”

Elliot began to shake. “B-but Master, I…”

Solomon glared at him. “No more protests. You swore your undying loyalty to me did you not? Now prove it!”

Elliot began to cry. “Y-yes.”

“Then open your mouth to receive the Hidden One,” Solomon said as he held the squirming grub worm over his lips.

Elliot whimpered as he closed his eyes and opened his jaws. Solomon stuffed the maggot into his manservant’s mouth, then he covered Elliot’s lips with his hands so he couldn’t spit out the grub. Elliot started to choke as the maggot worked its way down his throat, his muffled screams came from the pit of his soul. Solomon hobbled backwards as Elliot fell to the floor and began to convulse in pain and terror.

The being hovered right next to Solomon, its shadowy form becoming more opaque. “Well done, Solomon. The sixth soul has now been consumed. The bargain has been met.”

Elliot’s body became bloated as his stomach began to expand. Within seconds, he looked like a dead cow lying on its side as something within him stretched the skin like a balloon. His arms and legs disappeared as the bulbous pale flesh expanded until it was a blob that was now the size of a small car.