Extinction (The Divine Book 7) (24 page)

I turned back to look at the Cathedral. Josette said God was on my side. I certainly hadn't been feeling it while I got my ass kicked. Unless that was what she meant? I laughed at the thought. Was the Man Upstairs enjoying watching me make a fool of myself?

I got to my feet and headed up the steps and into the building. I felt a chill as soon as I entered, a reaction I had never experienced before. A moment later, my entire body began to tingle, every nerve ending reacting to something I couldn't see or sense. As I walked down the aisle, it seemed as if my steps were growing lighter and more energetic, my tired body and soul lifted and held by an unseen hand.

Was this God's work? Uriel's? Josette's?

Jane appeared from the transept, intercepting me in front of the altar.

"Landon," she said.

"I need help," I said. "My friend, Obi."

"New York Presbyterian?" she replied.

"How did you know?"

She looked up in answer. I got the point.

"Is he going to be okay?"

"He will be well. A novice has already been dispatched to treat him."

I let myself relax. At least something was going right.

"What happened?" she asked.

"The Fist. I thought Zifah needed to be touching it to control it. I was wrong."

"How, then?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Adam was controlling it with some kind of cybernetic interface. It was part technology, part Divine. But I destroyed it, and I didn't see any kind of control interface on Zifah. He's too small to hide anything like that."

"How did you break the control the last time?"

"I cut Adam's arm off. That won't work here. I can't even get close to Zifah without the Fist blocking me, and after Obi managed to slap him, I don't think he'll risk putting himself in the open again." I lowered my head, feeling the weight returning. "I'm losing this one, and I don't see any way not to."

"How can I help you?"

"If you sent someone to help Obi, you already have." I looked back at the pews. "If you don't mind, I'm just going to hang out for a little while."

"To pray?" she asked hopefully.

"To think," I replied. "I need to figure out what to do next, and everyone I used to lean on for support is gone."

"Not everyone, Diuscrucis," Jane said, pointing to the crucifix behind the altar. "If you need me, whisper my name. I will hear you."

"Thank you, Jane," I said.

"You're welcome."

She headed off again, leaving me alone. I retreated to the front row of pews, taking a seat on the corner. I glanced up at the crucifix for a moment before leaning back and closing my eyes. Jesus had been absent while I was in Heaven. Why would he do anything for me here?

No. I was on my own. I couldn't count on Dante for advice. I couldn't look to Obi to monitor SamChan or scour the Darknet for clues. Alyx was still out there, but I was more convinced than ever that getting her involved would be the same thing as getting her killed.

I needed to solve this one myself.

I tried to relax, to breathe deep and even, to let my mind go. I needed to forget about the chaos swirling around me and find some measure of focus within the maelstrom. I couldn't do everything at once. I was one person, and could only do one thing at one time.
 

Right now, I needed to figure out how to stop the Fist cold so that I could get a solid shot at Zifah and his power. If I could accomplish that, I could move on to dealing with Sarah.

The hours passed as I retread my memories, from my first encounter with the Fist to the present, searching them for clues. As far as I knew, there was only one way to control the armors remotely. While it was possible Zifah had come up with an interface that was either smaller or completely different than the one Adam had used, the odds that he had altered the Fist itself were slim. The scripture on the armor shielded it from manipulation and making the wrong changes anywhere created the risk of making the entire system brittle. Assuming that was a risk that neither Zifah or Gervais was willing to take, it meant that there had to be a way to send signals of my own to the armor.
 

The trick was to figure out how.

The Fist's creator was dead and gone, but there was one person involved in the project that could potentially shed a little more light on how it worked.

I got to my feet, abandoning the pew and heading for the exit. Jane met me there.

"Your friend Obi-wan is on the mend," she said.

"I'm happy to hear it," I said, making a note to visit him as soon as time allowed. "Thank you for your intervention."

"Don't thank me," she replied. "Thank the Lord."

"You'll have to do for now," I said. "I've got work to do."

The problem, as I saw it, was that getting my hands on Zifah was currently a catch-22. I couldn't stop the Fist without grabbing the demon, and I couldn't grab the demon without stopping the Fist. Rock, meet hard place.

The good news, if you could call it that, was that there was once small chance for me to get my hands on a pick and start chiseling away. The bad news was that the pick's name was Adam, and he wasn't exactly my biggest fan at the moment.

Adam had a direct hand in the creation of the Fist. He had been the one to hire Matthias and set him to work on the design; more specifically, the technical design of the interface between angel and machine. If there was anyone who knew how to disable it or knew someone who knew how to disable it, it was him.

Of course, I didn't know where to find Adam, and even once I did, I had no idea how I was going to get him to help me. My understanding was that he and Sarah were currently a thing, and it had been Sarah who instigated the whole relationship. She had convinced the fallen seraph to help her. Through lies? His own volition? That was what I needed to find out. If he was on her side, contacting or otherwise capturing him was going to be a huge risk. If he told her where I was, that was going to be a problem.

Then again, her killing of Dante was a blessing in disguise for me, and a gross miscalculation on her part. As long as I could use his teleportation skills, I would be a much more difficult catch.

As if that would help me while the rest of the world burned.

All of that aside, the bottom line was that I was out of other options. Dante was gone, and Obi had landed in that hospital in payment for his solid friendship. I didn't take that fact lightly, and it was motivation that I needed.

I left St. Patrick's and started walking along 5th Avenue, absorbing the sights and sounds of the city, my city, as I crossed town. I knew from Alichino that Adam and Sarah had been staying in contact through Yuli, the little messenger demon who had once been Reyzl's pet. I remained surprised he was still kicking around the mortal realm, but in this case, I figured it could work out in my favor. I wasn't on bad terms with the little demon, and once I was able to locate him, I might be able to get him to hook me up with Adam. Considering the nature of a messenger's work, it would probably take a bit of torture or other coercion, but I could be a lot more persuasive than most demons or angels, especially since I wasn't bound by any of their rules or concerns.
 

I was almost down to the New York Public Library by the time I had finalized my plan of action in my head. I glanced over at the structure for a moment, doing a quick scan for Divine, noting that the area was uncommonly clear. Sarah had both sides on edge, and they were laying low and waiting to see what was going to happen next. Thanks to the fact that Sarah was one of the few people who would never forget about me, they had probably caught wind through the Nicht Creidem that we weren't on the best of terms at the moment. When two diuscrucis squared off, it was better just to get out of the way.

I closed my eyes, blinking out of existence there and back into existence on the flight deck of the U.S.S. Intrepid. It was another landmark that held memories for me, most of them not that great. The damage we had caused there had been long repaired, but I could still see it in my head. I had to push the rising tide of sadness aside and refocus myself. I wasn't here for a walk down trauma lane.

I made my way from the flight deck to the interior, sweeping the area visually. Yuli could be anywhere in the world right now. He could be sitting on Sarah's lap or meeting with Adam on the other side of the world at the very same time I was moving through his home base. My odds of finding him here were somewhere between slim and none.

That was okay because I didn't need to find him. I'd learned a lot about messenger demons since I had become Divine. One of the more important things I'd learned was that demons became familiars to a fiend or archfiend by using their true name, some energy, and some runes, and using all of these things to create a token that bound them. I knew that Reyzl had once had control over Yuli's token. Then Rebecca had taken it after she betrayed me and literally stabbed me in the back. I didn't know what happened to it after that, but my assumption was that unless Sarah had found the small bit of the demon's flesh, it was still under Yuli's control and tucked away somewhere.
 

Why the Intrepid? I knew for a fact this was where an entire pool of messenger demons were living. I hadn't cared enough at the time to know if Yuli was part of their community.
 

I cared now.

I moved away from the public exhibits, and through an access door marked 'Employees only.' I remained on that track as I navigated the interior of the ship, checking the cracks and crevices for signs of the demons. Pretty soon I was coming across clumps of cat hair, and soon after that larger bunches of fur still attached to flesh. Demons like Yuli were too small and too weak to take on much else.

I caught sight of the first demon trying to stay hidden between a pair of pipes that ran along the ceiling. He was pressed in pretty tight, holding to the shadows and hoping I would go past. I looked up at him; he looked back at me. When I held his gaze, and he realized who I was, he squeaked softly and tried to back up into the wall even more.
 

"Don't make me drag you out," I said.

The demon hissed.
 

"Really?"

He cursed under his breath, and then pushed himself out between the pipes, his body cracking as his skeletal structure returned to form. A small pair of wings held him up over my head.

"Whatsss do you wantsss, Diuscrucisss?" he asked.

"I'm looking for Yuli."

"Who?"

I reached out with my power, throwing the demon against the wall and holding him.

"You know who," I said.

He smiled. Messenger demons weren't known for their backbone. "Yuli isssn't here."

"Where is he?"

"What do I looksss like? Hisss mother?"

"You're way too ugly to be his mother, which says a lot. I need to talk to him."

"I haven't ssseen him in two monthsss or ssso. He left one day. He sssaid he had a job that would paysss very, very wellsss."

Two months? Had Sarah been planning this for that long? That was a little before the day that Adam had fallen. Had she really seen everything unfolding the way she claimed?

"Is his token here?"

"I'm not telling you thatsss," the demon said.

I pressed against him with my power again, flattening him to the wall. "I know there's one thing that demons like you value more than secrets."

His snout opened in a wicked smile, his tongue flicking between his teeth. "I can'tsss. Pleassse, Diuscrucisss. If you needssss messenger, I cansss do it for you."

"Sorry, pal. I need Yuli."

"He can'tsss tell you anythingsss."

"I don't need information from him. I just need him to take me to someone. Bring me to his token. I'll use it to get him here, and that's it."

"You liesss."

I let him go. He slapped his wings furiously and rubbed at his neck.
 

"I'm not a demon. I don't need to lie. I promise. Take me to the token, let me summon him, and I'll be gone. Nobody will even remember I was ever here."

"Hmmm. You setsss many of usss free, Diuscrucisss. For thatsss, I will bring you."

He swooped down into the corridor, flying ahead of me. I walked behind him, keeping his pace as he navigated easily through the decommissioned aircraft carrier. Within minutes we were in one of the larger open spaces. There were at least two dozen of the small demons living here, each of them perched in dark corners behind pipes and equipment, their eyes barely visible through the cracks. They didn't protest my arrival. In fact, they all tried to shrink further away, just as my guide had. I left them alone.

"Here isss Yuli'sss space," the demon said, bringing me to a small opening between two metal boxes.
 

He ducked inside it, and I could hear him moving things aside beyond my view. He emerged a moment later, holding a small strip of worn flesh with runes etched into it. All of the demons in this room would have a similar token tucked away into their spaces, declaring them as free. My guide was showing a lot of faith in me to turn Yuli's over so easily, and to have led me here. I could easily gain control of every demon in the room if I decided to break my promise.