Rise of the Beast (67 page)

“No,” replied Nikola, “I don’t think he could do that. First of all, I don’t think the Father would allow it. Second, he would have to have a matter reformater. The Devil and his people are not so talented. Only the Father Himself holds that secret.” Tesla hesitated. “Until four days ago.”

Bedillia’s eyes brightened. “Oh please, Nikola, please tell me that you’ve built one.”

“I’ve built one,” confirmed Nikola. “Years ago, in Heaven, Johann and I managed to teleport angels from Earth to Heaven, but we had to cheat to do it. We tied directly into the particle stream of one of the rings that had been fashioned by the Father Himself. In essence, we allowed that ring to do the reformatting for us. But when Abaddon traveled out and back from Refuge for his audience with the Father, I monitored the functioning of the ring. In doing so, I got an idea. I think the Father intended to give me that clue. Four days ago I managed to access one of the rings Satan has had built on Earth. For over 20 seconds I formed a stable wormhole with it.”

Bedillia watched carefully as Tesla rose to his feet and walked over to what looked like a small box with a cloth over it. He picked it up and placed it on the table. He lifted the cloth to reveal a small cage and, within it, a small colorful bird—a living bird. Bedillia’s eyes grew wide with wonder. It had been so long since she had seen such a thing.

“I don’t know the species,” said Nikola. “It’s some sort of South Pacific variety. By sheer coincidence it happened to fly into the ring, into the open wormhole. I’d thought to collect only oxygen and nitrogen molecules, perhaps a trace of pollen. Instead, I got this. I discovered that he likes apple seeds. Eventually, I plan to send him back. Hell is no place for him.”

“And he made it through OK,” confirmed Bedillia.

“See for yourself,” said Nikola. “He seemed a little bit disoriented when he first emerged from my ring in the lab. But he recovered after a few minutes. That is how I captured him.”

“Does the door swing both ways?” asked Bedillia. “Could you send someone from here back to Earth?”

Nikola’s expression was not encouraging. “I don’t know. I haven’t tried it. Matter in Hell is far less substantial than matter on Earth. Still the transport should be possible by reverse formatting. I had half of the equation right, the other half should also be correct. But it hasn’t been tested. When the Father consented to my experimenting with inter-dimensional transport, he established one provision, one rule. Personal transport to and from Earth was forbidden. We could go anywhere else.”

“Except Hell,” noted Bedillia.

“Yes,” confirmed Nikola. “The Father gave us that provision later. He sent His own son, Jesus, to deliver that message to us, as well as get us out of one terrific mess.”

“You’ve already broken that rule,” noted Bedillia.

“Yes, I have,” noted Nikola.

“I need you to send me to Earth,” said Bedillia. “I need to go to that island, Katafanga. I need to get my daughter and her husband out of there. I’ll need to go there heavily armed. Perhaps I can take some bad guys out in the process. I could use that new-powered armor that Tom and Kurt developed.”

“And you might need that armor to hold your body together too,” replied Nikola.

“What do you mean by that?” asked Bedillia.

“I mean that we’ve never teleported matter from here to there,” said Nikola. “It’s all theoretical. Bill Wang has been looking at the problem, and he sees a danger. It’s called atomic cohesive failure. Basically, you would begin to fall apart at the atomic level. You’d be fine for a while, but eventually you’d begin to massively hemorrhage inside. It would be like lethal exposure to radiation and just as painful. I could not even guarantee that your soul and spirit would survive, and if they did, they would be adrift forever in the ethereal wasteland.”

“You’re saying this might happen, not that it will happen,” retorted Bedillia.

“Yes,” replied Nikola, “but do you really want to take the chance? Look, Abaddon is mobilizing his children. He has had a visitation from the Holy Spirit. The
time is upon us. Tim has sent the alpha male, this Goliath, out to gather them up from every corner of Hell. Abaddon has called still others to come. Within the week they will be dispatched, over 50 million of them. They will be entering Earth through the 20 or so rings Satan has had built, as well as through an oil well in the Middle East. I am sure that they could rescue your daughter. Indeed, I don’t think you could keep Goliath from doing it.”

“But they will arrive too late,” objected Bedillia.

“And you plan to go alone,” deduced Nikola.

“No,” said Bedillia. “There are others here in Refuge with family in jeopardy. Satan is also holding a man by the name of Leland James.”

“Wait,” said Nikola, “I heard that name. We have a Leland Brown here in Refuge. He has spoken of a Leland James on Earth, his great grandson.”

“It is his great grandson that Satan is holding,” confirmed Bedillia. “Our Leland will be going with me. And so will Krissie James. The demon who has taken her body may be on the island as well. It might be possible for her to take it back. We are just waiting for the right moment.” There was a moment of hesitation. “And Tom Carson is going too. He refuses to allow me to go alone.”

“You all realize that this may be a one way trip,” said Nikola.

“They’ll know,” confirmed Bedillia, “but I know it won’t change their decision.”

“And Abaddon has approved it?” asked Nikola.

“Not yet,” said Bedillia. “I will ask him—plead with him, if necessary. To undertake this mission without authority granted from God through his servant here would be disastrous.”

“And your timetable,” continued Nikola. “When?”

“I don’t know,” admitted Bedillia. “A few days. Aaron will tell me when. We want Krissie’s mortal body to be there, but we must do it before Satan has his way with my daughter.” Bedillia hesitated. “I’ll tell you this, Nikola. If the opportunity presents itself, I plan to blast Satan’s physical form to atoms.”

That raised Nikola’s considerable eyebrows. “So, it’s about revenge?”

“No,” said Bedillia. “It’s about family. It’s about redemption, my redemption. I have never been a real mother to Serena, not like I should have. Now I have my chance. I won’t fail her this time.”

Abaddon listened as Bedillia presented her plan to rescue her daughter. Still, he didn’t like what he was hearing.

“Perhaps Satan will delay whatever he has planned for her,” suggested Abaddon. “It might be possible for me to rescue her when I lead my children in.”

“When will that be?” asked Bedillia.

“Five days,” was the reply. “It will take that much time to gather them all together.”

“I don’t think we have five days,” replied Bedillia. “Look, Abaddon, I’ve got to do this.”

Abaddon shook his head. “Yes, I know. I love her too.” “I know you do,” confirmed Bedillia.

Abaddon paused, seemingly lost in thought for a few minutes. Then he smiled at her. “Go, with the Father’s blessing,” said Abaddon. “But take some of my children with you. They might come in useful.”

“If you can spare them,” said Bedillia.

“I can,” replied Abaddon. “The four of you need a plan. You can’t just go in there, guns blazing. I’ll have Kurt work with you.”

“I’ve been on enough rescue missions,” said Bedillia. “I can handle myself.”

For the first time in the meeting, Abaddon smiled. “I know you can. I just need you to return safe. Good counselors are hard to find.”

The following days found the team planning their assault. They had a plan to get the prisoners out as well as a variety of contingency plans should something go wrong. Each of them would wear powered armor. It was amazingly light. It would cover them from head to toe, much like a skin diving suit, but
this one would offer them a degree of protection from bullets and other weapons that might be thrown at them. Still, like so many of the devices they would be depending upon, it was experimental.

All the while, the number of Abaddon’s children gathering in Refuge and the caverns of Noak grew. They would be ready when the time came. Abaddon only hoped that they would be ready to save Chris and Serena.

Serena gazed out through the bars of the eight-by-eight foot cell far below the chapel. After two days without food or water, she was very hungry and thirsty. There was not a stick of furniture in this cell, and most of the available light came from what looked like a series of glowing crystals built into the rocky ceiling beyond the cell. She suspected that they were actually fluorescent fixtures, but Lusan had gone to great lengths to make this place look like an authentic waiting cell in Hell—even down to the gray ragged skirt and top they had dressed her in. It brought back most unpleasant memories, memories that had haunted her dreams all too often over the years.

Still, what lay beyond those bars was not quite like the corridor she remembered from her first day in Hell. It wasn’t a corridor at all, but a circular subterranean chamber about 40 or so feet across. Along its walls were cells, one after another, all the same, and at the center was a great pit, about 20 feet wide. A foul stench arose from it, a stench she knew only too well. Fifteen feet below the rim of that pit a black liquid bubbled and churned, a liquid she had once been most intimately associated with during her months in the Great Sea of Fire. Occasionally a brief pillar of flames arose from the black oily surface.

Of all of the things that could have been presented to her, this was the most frightening. She supposed that was the general idea.

“Serena, are you awake?” arose a voice from the next cell.

“I’m awake, Chris,” she confirmed. “I sort of wish I wasn’t.”

“I managed to sleep a few hours,” said Chris. “Has Leland moved?”

Serena moved to the bars and gazed five cells down, where the guards had tossed Leland almost two days ago.

“I’m awake,” said Leland, his voice low and faltering.

“Thank God,” said Chris. “We’ve been praying for you. You’ve been in some sort of coma. What happened to you?”

“They tried to do me like they did Krissie,” said Leland. “They didn’t have much luck. The Holy Spirit in me was a bit more than they could handle. I tried to tell them, but they wouldn’t listen. Stupid demons, anyway.” There was a pause. “Don’t much care for wearing a skirt. Old slewfoot doesn’t have a lick of sense when it comes to fashion. He doesn’t know much about room service either. He’s not getting a good rating from me.”

Serena had to smile. From the short time she’d had to get to know Leland James, she’d come to respect him. He seemed almost fearless.

Leland took some time to share his experience in that chair with Chris and Serena. There was no doubt in Serena’s mind; he’d come a long way in a short time.

It was about an hour later that Lielani walked into the chamber. She placed a cup of water just outside of each of the three cells.

“The master has been unavoidably delayed,” she said. “He is such a busy man. Anyway, I didn’t want you to die of thirst before he arrived. He’d never forgive me for that, after he had gone to so much trouble to provide you with the proper atmosphere. We’ve all been busy. Word has it that one of the larger comet fragments will strike less than a thousand miles from the island. We’re under a general evacuation order. Just another three days and this island will be under a couple hundred feet of water, or so they say. It will be the greatest disaster in human history.” Lielani laughed. “They don’t know what disaster is. They will.”

Serena grabbed for the water and took a drink. It was warm, but it tasted all right. It came well short of satisfying her thirst. She figured that was the general idea.

“Still, I don’t think you’ll need to concern yourself with drowning in the tsunami,” continued Lielani. “Your deaths will not be nearly so merciful.” She turned to Serena. “Two days, wench. That is all you have. You’ll go first, but the rest won’t be far behind.”

“You’re wrong,” said Leland, who now had risen to his feet. “Hear me and hear me well, demon. You have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.
I tell you that you won’t live to see the death of Serena or any of us. You shall be reduced to ashes, too few to even be buried. Your evil spirit shall wander the ethereal wasteland until the judgment, when an even more dire fate awaits you.”