Faith Defiled (Gray Spear Society Book 14) (40 page)

Aaron was looking around in wonder. His new body preserved just the essential details in abstract form. His skin looked like smooth, white marble. His hair was a brown block with sharp corners. A collection of straight black lines formed his face.

"You look good, dear," Marina said.

She created a mirror and gave it to him. He gazed at his own face.

"Is this my new body?" he said.

"It's a mental projection, a dream made real. You are what you imagine yourself to be. You can change form at will, and you'll do it often. There are many alien civilizations in the universe. When we meet them, it would be best if we looked like them."

He suddenly became a lion, and he roared for fun.

Bethany, Leanna, and Norbert entered the apartment. The twins' robot heads had reverted to normal, human heads, but of course, they could appear any way they wanted. Their smiles seemed genuine though. As always, they were wearing white shirts and red, pleated skirts. They would probably dress the same for all eternity.

"I prefer you this way," Aaron said.

"Thank you," Bethany said in a natural voice. "Was the journey here difficult?"

"Not at all. Just a little unsettling."

"It was very hard for us, but we were the first."

Jack entered the apartment next. Marina wondered if the dead security chief were a ghost. A black cowboy hat sat on top of his shiny, bald head. His blue eyes were as sharp as she remembered. He was wearing a plaid shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots.

"What are you doing here?" Aaron said. "Did you come down from Heaven or something?"

Jack shook his head. "I'm not who you think. I'm the universal firewall, but I carry Jack's noble spirit with me."

"You're a computer program?"

"In a way. The twins made me." Jack glanced at Bethany and Leanna. "We will be working closely together. I'll tell you where intrusions are occurring, and you'll send
legionnaires
to deal with it."

The twins created a whole team,
Marina thought.
How very clever of them.

The invisible, loving presence of God entered the room. Everybody bowed.

"I gathered you here so I could explain your responsibilities," the Lord said. "Jack is the first line of defense against My enemies. He will stop most of the incoming attacks. Bethany and Leanna are the administrators and researchers. They will repair and upgrade Jack."

"What about me?" Norbert said.

"When you aren't protecting the Voice of Truth, you will give the twins the love they need. Your role is essential. Without you, they would go insane with loneliness."

Norbert bowed deeply. "I'm honored."

"The new
legionnaires
will stop the intrusions that get past Jack," God said. "They are the inner defense. The Lord and Lady will keep the
legionnaires
under control. Discipline those who stray from the path. Replace those who refuse to learn. We cannot allow such powerful beings to run amok. They could cause enormous damage."

"I understand, Lord," Aaron said. "We will be very strict with them."

"And I will be strict with you."

"I would expect nothing else."

"That's all," God said. "Congratulations on a successful mission. You may begin your new duties."

He left, and so did everybody else except Aaron. Marina allowed the make-believe kitchen to fade away. The Lord and Lady were left alone in the void. They silently enjoyed the feeling of victory for a moment. It had been hard-earned.

"I guess we'd better get to work," he said at last.

"Indeed," she said. "Let's start with me. An urgent matter needs my attention."

She thought about Yang. An instant later, she was standing in a lobby of a very fine hotel. A pattern of colored marble tiles covered the floor. Great pillars went up to a stained glass ceiling high above. There were huge vases full of fresh flowers.

Marina realized she was in a public place, and she changed her appearance so she looked normal. Aaron had already done the same. His handsome face was just like she remembered, and he even had five o'clock shadow.

Yang was talking to somebody at the front desk. The
legionnaire
looked sharp in his gray suit, but Marina knew it wasn't real. Like the rest of him, the clothing was a projection.

She walked over. "Hey."

He turned to her, and his eyes widened. He bowed his head. "Greetings, Lord and Lady."

"What's your status?"

They stepped away to get some privacy.

"Olivia, the assistants, and the witches are safe and sound in a suite." He pointed upwards. "I killed a bunch of bad guys and captured one for interrogation."

Aaron raised his eyebrows. "Witches?"

"It's an interesting story," Marina said, "but not now. Yang, you're responsible for Olivia's safety until I say otherwise. Guard her closely."

"Yes, ma'am," Yang said. "It will be an honor and a pleasure."

"Tell her I'll visit as soon as I have time." Marina turned to Aaron. "It sounds like everything is buttoned down here. I have to pick up my crown, and then we can deal with your business."

"Crown?"

She jumped back to the basement of the Chinatown building.

The aperture was gone, but Smythe, Odelia, Charles, and Wesley were still standing around. Everybody but Wesley appeared shocked by the sudden appearance of the Lord and Lady.

Norbert also chose that moment to arrive. His face was a simple oval, and his eyes were just brown circles on a white background. His hair looked like a layer of brown plastic. Gray robes flowed from his shoulders like smoke.

Wesley approached Norbert. "Take me back to Washington, DC, please. I have a lot of work to do there. The corruption runs deep."

Norbert grabbed Wesley's hand, and they vanished.

He should've asked us for permission,
Marina thought.

"That's quite a trick," Smythe said.

Aaron looked over at him. "Why didn't you go through?"

"We wanted to settle down and have a family." Smythe gave Odelia a kiss.

"You're getting married?"

"As soon as we can. Both of you are invited to our wedding, of course."

"We will certainly attend," Aaron said.

Marina grabbed the crown of North America from the workbench where she had left it.

He studied the engraved silver panels. "That's beautiful. Where did you get it?"

"Black Deer is buried beneath us in a secret chamber. This was his crown. See? That's us." She pointed at the depiction of them. "I'm going to wear it." She put the crown on her head.

"It looks great on you, darling. Shall we go? We have plenty of messes to clean up."

"One sec." Marina gave Odelia a hug and shook Smythe's hand. "Congratulations on your marriage. I know you'll be very happy together. Now we can go."

Aaron and Marina vanished.

Chapter Twenty-two

Marina looked up at a two-story, wooden building. The walls had warped over the years, and most of the paint had worn off. The windows were dusty and cracked. A stone chimney came up through a tarpaper roof. The words "Underhill Coal Mine" were painted on the side, but the letters had faded.

"This must be the place," Aaron said, "but where is the entrance to the mine?"

She pointed at a hole in the ground. Narrow gauge railroad tracks emerged from the hole and terminated on the surface.

He nodded. "Let's go."

She followed him over to the hole. A metal fence blocked their way, and when he pushed it aside, jagged bolts of electricity flashed from wire to wire, but he showed no reaction. They continued into the dark hole.

The lack of light wasn't a problem. Marina turned up the sensitivity of her eyes and switched to infrared.

"We need to start making organizational decisions," she said. "Our
legionnaires
need direction."

"I've been too busy to think about that."

"I've had the opposite problem. Too much time to think and worry. Wesley told me we can do what we want with the assistants. I propose retaining some of them for the new Society. We still need technical experts to help us with investigations."

"True," he said, "but they'll be bored most of the time. There will be a lot fewer missions in the future. It doesn't seem right to keep the assistants holed up in secret cells on the off chance we might need them."

"I think they can go back to leading normal lives when there is no mission. We'll call on them only when necessary, or maybe not at all."

"That makes sense. I agree."

Flame throwers popped out from hidden compartments in the walls. The air became hot enough to melt steel, but Aaron and Marina didn't break stride.

"Speaking of cells," he said, "what kind of command structure did you have in mind? Isolated groups like before?"

She shook her head. "No need for that. A simple, flexible hierarchy will work better."

"The point of isolated cells is to prevent the spread of corruption."

"That's our job now. If we find any corruption, we'll obliterate it."

They came to a huge, steel door guarded by eight heavily armed soldiers. The enemy opened fire with machine guns. Chain guns loaded with depleted uranium rounds dropped down from the ceiling and added to the cacophony. Marina fired a volley of black fingernails. The explosions annihilated the soldiers, wrecked the guns, and blasted open the door.

The entire tunnel collapsed, and hundreds of tons of rubble fell on her and Aaron.

They pushed the debris aside and proceeded into an underground military base. The corridor was made of gleaming steel and glass. Subdued light passed through grills on the ceiling.

"Those fingernails are pretty cool," he said. "I wonder if my saliva was also enhanced."

"Try it," she said.

He spat at the floor. Instead of a gob of acid making a little hole, a beam of yellow energy shot out. The resulting vertical shaft was three feet across and miles deep. Marina saw glowing lava at the bottom.

"A wee bit enhanced," he said.

She smiled. "Let's keep going."

They passed laboratories, armories, dormitories, offices, and more.

"Somebody spent some money," Marina said.

"Erika Navarro," Aaron said. "A Pythagorean. Very wealthy, very reclusive, and very dangerous. I believe she's behind all of this."

Hundreds of gallons of boiling hydrochloric and sulfuric acid poured from tanks in the ceiling, dowsing them.

"I'm eager to meet her," she said.

"We should also find General Walker, the military genius who commanded the Army."

A door at the end of a corridor slid open, revealing a howitzer. It blasted Aaron in the chest with a 155 mm shell. He ignored it, but the damage to the surrounding rooms was impressive.

He and Marina finally arrived at a door that looked like it had come from a bank vault. It was round and made of gleaming steel. The giant hinge looked strong enough to support a bridge.

Aaron knocked on the door with enough strength to make it ring like a deep bell. She felt the reverberations through the floor.

"Hello?" he said. "Anybody home?"

"They must be in there," she said.

"I think they're ignoring us."

"How rude."

"I'll knock louder," Aaron said.

He punched the door with his fist. The entire door flew forward amid sheared bolts and shattered rock even though it weighed many tons. The passage where the door had been was so deep it looked like a tunnel. The two of them walked through.

Marina nodded with admiration at one of the nicer command bunkers she had ever seen. It was the size of a gymnasium. Dozens of military officers and technicians sat in front of complex control consoles. Giant video screens hung on the walls, but they were dark now. The walls were covered in steel plate. There was even a nice buffet off to the side.

A raised platform at the back was clearly for the leaders. A man wearing the uniform of an Army general stood there.
General Walker,
Marina thought. A woman cowering under a bed had to be Erika.

Everybody started shooting.

"I like this place," Aaron said. "It has a James Bond evil lair feel to it. It makes me want to hatch diabolical schemes."

"I think it's more retro-futuristic," Marina said. "Look at all the shiny computers."

He waved his hand irritably at the bullets flying at his face. "Would you mind dealing with the riff-raff, darling?"

"Of course."

Marina used her fingernails again, but this time, she reduced their explosive power. They shot like sniper bullets into her enemies and blasted their heads apart.

"Show off," Aaron said.

She smiled.

He climbed up onto the platform. Walker threw his empty gun at Aaron in a pathetic gesture of defiance.

"Hi," Aaron said. "We finally get a chance to meet face to face. You may address me as Lord of the Society, or you can use my new name, Acid."

"Acid?" Walker said.

"It's because of my extremely corrosive spit. My lovely bride is Nails."

Marina joined her husband on the platform.

Erika's antique brass bed was in a broken glass enclosure. There was an entertainment system, dressers, a bathtub, and a toilet. Movable cloth screens could be placed to provide privacy.

Marina walked over and tossed the bed aside. Erika squealed in fear on the floor.

She was a Hispanic woman who needed to lose a few pounds. Her skin tone was light for her ethnicity. Diamond studded clips held her long, black hair.

Marina smiled at her.

"You want to know what the big secret was?" Aaron said.

"Sure," Walker said.

"You're looking at it. The old Gray Spear Society is gone, and there are new sheriffs in town. To put it another way, the war between God and His enemies is basically over. But that doesn't mean we're done with you. You and your partner in crime are going to rat out the rest of the Pythagoreans. We're going to eradicate this conspiracy permanently."

Walker stood tall. "I'll never talk."

"You will. You'll also beg, cry, and scream. Most of all, you'll regret the choices you made. Unfortunately, we can't perform the interrogation now. Chicago is a mess, thanks to you, and we need to manage the cleanup. The Lord and Lady have responsibilities that can't be ignored. Somebody else will be along in a moment to take care of you." Aaron winked.