Mercury Rises (34 page)

"What do you mean, 'push'?" said Christine.

Tiamat explained, "Flight is just a matter of using the interplanar energy to overcome gravity. Mercury pushes against the ground, and we push against him."

Christine now understood how Gamaliel had been able to catch Mercury outside the WHO building: Izbazel had been
pushing
him. With the combined power of two angels, Gamaliel had been able to fly twice as fast as Mercury.

"We're right between two energy streams," Tiamat was saying, "so there's plenty of power. In essence, we transfer our power to him. If each angel pushes as hard as we can, we may be able to get him to the moon before the anti-bomb goes off." She paused and then said, "Let me stress that he would need the help of
every angel here
."

"What's your game, Tiamat?" Lucifer asked.

"We help Mercury get to the moon," Tiamat said. "In exchange, Michelle drops all charges against us. We get to leave, scot-free."

"Forget it," Michelle said, shaking her head vigorously. "I'm not letting you slip between my fingers again."

"Then the Earth dies," said Tiamat. "And good luck explaining
that
to the Senate. See if you hold onto your job after that one."

"Please," said Christine to Michelle. "It's the only way. You'll have another chance to catch Tiamat and Lucifer. You can't let seven billion people die because of a grudge between angels."

"Let me know what you come up with," said Mercury. "I'll catch you all later." He made his way to the elevator that led to the floor of the dome. The angels looked expectantly to Michelle for a cue.

"Fine," she said at last. "But I don't have the authority to absolve you of your crimes. All I can do is give you a head start. If Mercury succeeds, I'll let you open portals and get out of here. Even you, Uzziel, if you can find someplace willing to take you. But if Mercury fails, I'm calling down a Class Five and taking you all in. Take it or leave it."

Lucifer made no effort to hide his disgust. "I've been waiting seven thousand years for this moment," he growled. "Why should I give up now?"

"Self-preservation," said Tiamat. "Yes, you'll have the satisfaction of destroying the world, but do you really want to spend the next ten thousand years in Heavenly custody? They will make you pay for every one of those seven billion deaths. Be reasonable, Luce. There will be other opportunities to destroy the world."

Lucifer gritted his teeth, narrowing his eyes at Mercury. This was the second effort of his to destroy Earth in the past two months that had been foiled by this uppity cherub and his little human sidekick. First they had absconded with his Antichrist, ruining his attempt at a surprise attack via the linoleum portal, and now they were going to steal his failsafe, his doomsday device, the anti-bomb that had been ripening silently inside a mountain for seven thousand years. How did this keep happening? Somehow fate itself was interfering with his attempts to wipe out the Earth.

Lucifer scolded himself for pursuing this line of thought. Lucifer was the original empiricist; he believed in reason and cold, hard facts. That was why he had rebelled against Heaven in the first place: he was sick of being told to just do what he was told and trust that there was some sort of "higher order" that was going to make sure everything turned out OK.
Fate
and
destiny
were the last refuge of the weak and incompetent.

But there did seem to be something to the whole Charlie Nyx thing. With the publication of each successive book in the series, the situation on Earth got exponentially worse. He had always known there was something powerful about that ancient tale of the teenage warlock, but had never put much stock in the prophecy that the books were somehow going to bring about the Apocalypse. He had always thought of the Charlie Nyx books as just another way to spread Satanism and chaos, but the connection between the publication of the books and the progression toward the Apocalypse was becoming difficult to deny. Was the ancient prophecy right after all? If it were, then it was no wonder Lucifer kept failing: the world couldn't end until the seventh Charlie Nyx book had been published.

The rational side of his mind continued to rail against this notion. His whole purpose in trying to destroy the world was to prove that there was no meaning, no higher power, no Divine Plan. There were only accidents, entropy, and destruction. And if the world was going to have to end,
he
was going to have to end it. He couldn't rely on humanity's half-assed efforts to wipe itself out, or on self-interested schemers like Tiamat, or on Fate or Destiny. The Apocalypse wasn't something that just
happened
; it had to be brought about, and Lucifer knew that he was the only one in the Universe who was up to the task. The anti-bomb was his ace in the hole. If he gave up this opportunity, he'd never get another chance. On the other hand, if the occurrence of the Apocalypse really
was
dependent on the publication of the final Charlie Nyx book, then his attempt to use the anti-bomb to destroy the world was premature and doomed to fail. Not only that, but as Tiamat said, he'd most likely spend the next ten thousand years in prison. That might be tolerable if he succeeded, but if he failed, he would have to spend a hundred centuries regretting the premature implosion. No one would be around to ensure that Culain delivered the final book, and the human race would simply limp along miserably for countless millennia, with no one to put them out of their misery.

In the end, Lucifer did something that he hadn't done for seven thousand years: he ignored his rational side and made a leap of faith. There was simply no point in resisting Destiny. He clenched his fists and let loose a howl of rage. "Let's get this over with then," he spat, and followed Mercury to the elevator.

"First floor," Mercury announced. "Hardware, lingerie, and the freaking
moon
!"

The lot of them joined Mercury and Lucifer, packing the elevator to capacity. The elevator took them to the floor of the dome and they made their way outside, where a full moon hung in the night sky. Uzziel placed his Balderhaz Cube into its shielded box, so that it wouldn't interfere with the angels' ability to channel energy. The angels gathered in a circle around Mercury, while Christine, Jacob, and Allie stood back from the group. They had left Horace Finch and his guards in the control room.

"Any last words, Merc?" said Michelle.

Mercury held the glowing red apple aloft and said, "I would like to take this moment to officially forgive the other reindeer for not letting me join in any of their reindeer games."

With that, he leaped into the air, a red beacon twinkling in the night sky. Michelle stepped forward, raising her hands heavenward to channel her supply of interplanar energy toward Mercury. One by one, the other angels joined in, adding their power to the stream.

By the time Lucifer had begrudgingly joined in, Mercury was traveling so fast that he had to channel all of his own strength into shielding the anti-bomb from the heat caused by the compression of the air ahead of him. A few minutes later, though, he was free of the atmosphere, soaring far above the Earth. The full moon grew larger and larger, until he could make out hundreds of individual craters in the gray orb---and still he continued to accelerate. The apple now positively glowed in his hand.

After a few more minutes, the moon loomed larger than the Earth. The farther he traveled, the faster it grew. The twelve angels on the ground continued to push, and with the lack of atmosphere and diminished gravity of space, there was nothing to limit his speed. Fear gripped him as he realized that he could easily be traveling over a hundred thousand miles per hour---and as he entered the gravitational pull of the moon, he accelerated even faster. The apple shone so brightly now that he had to shield his eyes from it, and it actually seemed to be vibrating in his hand. The apple got hotter and hotter, and soon it was burning his hand. He held it for as long as he could, and then pulled back and hurled it with all his might into the center of the silvery disc.

FORTY-ONE

"We've lost him," said Tiamat.

"What do you mean, you've lost him?" Christine demanded. "Did he make it?"

As they watched, there was a pulse of light in the center of the moon, and then it went dark. Where the light had been, a black spot appeared and continued to grow. Massive chunks of the moon were breaking off and being sucked into the void.

"He did it!" Christine said. "Right?"

The rest of the group cast nervous glances at each other. Suddenly the earth began to shake.

"What's that?" Christine asked. "An earthquake?"

"A third of the moon just got sucked into another universe," said Jacob. "It's affecting the moon's pull on the Earth. There are going to be some earthquakes. And tsunamis. And volcanic eruptions. And probably some hurricanes, too. Things are going to get ugly."

"The important thing is that we lived up to our side of the bargain," said Lucifer. "Now if you'll pardon me, I've got some pressing matters to attend to." He could only hope that he was right about the Charlie Nyx books. His number one priority was now to make sure that the seventh book was published as soon as possible.

A portal appeared on the ground near Lucifer's feet. He and his minions stepped onto it and disappeared.

"I've got to be going as well," said Tiamat. Another portal appeared at her feet.

"Wait!" cried Uzziel. "Take me with you!"

"Bah," said Tiamat. "I have no use for a paper pusher," she said. "Izbazel and Gamaliel may come with me, however, if they reaffirm their allegiance."

"OK, whatever!" said Izbazel. "We pledge our allegiance. Just get us out of here!" Gamaliel nodded, and they joined Tiamat.

Tiamat took a step toward the portal.

"Wait!" Uzziel cried again. "I have information!"

Tiamat's brow furrowed. "What kind of information?"

"If you agree to let me come with you, I'll tell you who betrayed you in Babylon. I'll tell you who leaked your plan to open a portal to the metaverse."

Tiamat shook her head. "That matter is settled. My intelligence indicated it was Osiris. He has been dealt with."

"Osiris!" Uzziel exclaimed. "Where did you get that idea?"

"It seemed obvious," said Tiamat. "He was jealous because he couldn't get his portal working, and Mercury assured me that..." Her voice trailed off.

Uzziel smiled.

"He wouldn't," Tiamat said coldly. "He was my lieutenant, my right-hand man. I trusted him."

"I've got proof," said Uzziel. "Take me with you, and I'll show you."

"Fine," said Tiamat. "But you'd better not be lying. And if you're telling the truth, Mercury would be wise to never show his face on any known plane again."

Tiamat and her entourage stepped onto the portal, and Uzziel, Izbazel, and Gamaliel followed.

"I must leave as well," said Michelle. "I need to mobilize my troops to try to stem the chaos on Earth. Thank you for your assistance, Christine."

"Wait," said Christine. "What about Mercury? Where is he? Is he all right?"

Michelle sighed. "The short answer," she said, "is that I don't know. An anti-bomb opens a rift between two planes. Any matter that gets sucked into the rift will reappear in the corresponding location on the target plane. The problem is that with anti-bombs, there's no controlling which plane that is, and the farther you get away from Earth, the more remote the target plane is likely to be. Mercury is an angel, so his physical form will reincorporate wherever he ends up, but that could be on some completely uncharted plane."

"Uncharted?" Christine asked, a queasy feeling in her gut. "But you can get him back, right?"

Michelle sighed again. "Possibly," she said. "He may be able to tap into Angel Band from whatever plane he's on. But on some remote planes the signal is very weak. If he can't reach anyone on a known plane, then we can't open a portal to him."

"Meaning what?" Christine demanded. "He's alone on some deserted plane? Stuck there by himself, forever?"

"It's a possibility," Michelle admitted.

"So he saves the world, and this is the thanks he gets? Exiled to some godforsaken plane for all eternity?"

"We'll do what we can to find him," Michelle said. "I promise. But now, I really must go. Duty calls."

"Fine," said Christine. "Go."

Michelle and her angels left as well. The three humans were left alone on the Kenyan plain, a cold wind howling in their ears.

"We haven't officially met," she said to the two men. "I'm Christine Temetri. I'm an Apocalypse magnet."

"Hi, Christine," said Jacob. "I'm Jacob Slater. This is Alistair Breem."

"Allie, please," said Allie, shaking Christine's hand.

"Nice to meet you," Christine said. "What do you say we steal a car and get the hell out of here before Horace Finch wakes up?"

FORTY-TWO

Mercury regained consciousness reclined on a molded plastic bench. The sky was completely dark and devoid of any stars. The air was crisp and cold. Beneath his feet was concrete, but he couldn't make out any buildings in the darkness. Before him were several figures in tattered clothing, huddled over a steel drum in which a fire flickered brightly.

He stood up and approached the figures. "Uh, hello," he said, uncertainly.

"Hey, look who's awake!" one of them exclaimed, a filthy, toothless old man who seemed to be wearing at least four overcoats. There were seven figures altogether, and Mercury judged that four of them were men and three of them women, although it was difficult to be sure, given the dim light and the fact that each of them was wearing an entire wardrobe of mismatched clothing.

"You want some beans?" asked one of the ostensible women.

Mercury shook his head. "I'm good," he said. "Where am I?"

The group burst into laughter. "Where am I?" one of the men echoed jovially. "Oh, that's a good one. Haven't heard that one in..." His voice trailed off. "Anyway, it's been a while. Come closer to the fire. Don't be a stranger."