Rise of the Nephilim (19 page)

Jude finally regained full control of his senses in the back seat of the Escalade. He peered out the window and saw they were still travelling down a lonely two-lane highway. The headlights of the vehicle cut through the inky darkness ahead, illuminating only the asphalt and nearby trees as they sped by. They turned into a curve, and the right shoulder of the road fell away, replaced by a metal guard rail. Jude looked out toward the distant horizon’s faint red-gold glow, heralding the approaching dawn. The waxing daylight was just enough to paint the valley below in a mottled mix of orange-browns and grays. The sudden realization of how high they were sent a wave of nausea rushing over him, and he let out a mournful groan.

“Hang in there, man,” Eric said from the next row up. “It shouldn’t be too much longer.”

“Where are we going?” Jude asked.

“We’re heading into the heart of the Adirondack mountains,” Artemis answered, as she maintained her grip on the wheel. “We have an old fallout shelter there, where we can regroup and strengthen our position. It’s only a matter of time before they find us again, and we need to be ready.”

“I always liked camping” Jude joked dryly.

Artemis glanced back at Jude through the rear view mirror. Her mocha skin formed a rare set of laugh lines, as she smirked at him. “Just wait and see.”

Now that he was almost fully awake again, he took note of the other passengers in the vehicle. A blonde woman in a business suit sat up front with Artemis. Eric was surrounded on either side by two male Grigori. Jude had been laid across the back by himself to sleep off the effects of the medication.

“Hello again, Mister Sullivan,” the blonde said, as she turned around in her seat.

“Hello again…,” he paused, trying to place a name to the face. He was fairly certain he’d never seen her before.

“…Iris,” she finished with a smile. “I told you I would find a better body.”

“Ah yes,” he said. “Glad to see you again. How are you adapting?”

“It’s everything I expected and more,” she admitted. “We were justified instituting rules against interdicting human consciousness. Your species should not be interfered with directly. It’s bad for everyone.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Eric replied. “Present company excluded, of course.” He winked at Artemis. He seemed to have taken a liking to her over the past day.

They continued to chat for the next hour, as they wound up and down the foothills of the Adirondacks. They eventually veered off the main road onto a smaller one-lane path leading down the mountainside. The asphalt was cracked and broken from decades of apparent disrepair, and few scattered potholes jostled the passengers about on their descent to their destination.

The way widened and terminated at a circular clearing partially hidden by the rock. The far edge of the cul-de-sac was a naturally recessed shallow cavern, the roof of which went about fifty feet back. The cover of the stone shelf allowed them ample room to store their transports without fear of being spotted from the air. Near the back of the area, Jude spied a heavy steel door spotted with an irregular reddish pattern of rust from years of guarding the facility inside from the elements.

“Welcome to the silo,” Artemis announced with a verbal flourish, once she parked the automobile.

“Wow, are you for real?” Eric exclaimed.

“What is it?” asked Jude, as he stepped out to take a closer look at the place. “What am I missing here?”

“It’s an abandoned Cold War-era missile silo” Eric lectured. “The military built them to house Atlas-class intercontinental ballistic missiles back in the fifties, but they were pretty much all decommissioned when the military switched to the Saturn series. I’ve heard of a few that were sold to the public and converted into housing, but it makes sense to turn one into a defensible base.”

Artemis pointed upward through the rock. “The main silo doors are a little further up the mountain. It used to be just a small flat clearing in the woods, but the forest has since grown up around it. There isn’t any missile, anyway, so it just helps better camouflage the compound. We acquired this many years ago and stocked it with supplies in the event we ever needed it. ”

Prometheus and his group were just wrapping up from unloading their belongings out of the other SUV at this point, and they walked over to rejoin the others. “Glad to see you feeling better, Jude,” Prometheus greeted him. “Hurry on inside, everyone.” The group huddled around the door, as Prometheus strained to turn the heavy metal wheel that locked it. Even with his amplified strength, he had to recruit one of the others to help him. The crunch of layers of rust giving way was followed by the screech of metal grinding against metal. Finally the hatch was sprung and slowly swung outward.

Prometheus motioned everyone inside. Jude lingered and watched the small crowd go through. He spied Hephaestus tugging an oversized duffel bag from the car and walked over. “Would you like some help with that?”

“Sure,” Hephaestus answered gladly, as Jude grabbed a side. “It’s not very heavy, but it’s pretty bulky.”

“What is in here?” Jude questioned in disbelief at just how cumbersome the bag actually was.

“I disassembled and packed as many of my projects as I could,” the fiery engineer answered. “If the Nephilim want to fight, then I have some work to do.”

The two dragged the pieces of various electronic components inside the open doorway. They shuffled down a short, rock-lined passage and through a similar heavy door and into a circular staging area. The two set the equipment down on a nearby table. Jude stretched his back, as he looked around.

This level of the base was nothing more than a sparsely furnished living area. A couple of plastic-covered couches were positioned around a large, dust-covered cathode-ray tube television next to an equally dusty mini-bar and book shelf. Metal racks and lockers lined the walls around the main entrance and contained an assortment of things from camping gear to hunting rifles.

Jude sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose. “What is that smell?”

“We haven’t been here in a few years,” Hephaestus answered, as he opened the bag and check the status of its contents. “The air will be stale until we get it cycling again. It should only take a few hours.”

Jude wandered over to the rest of the group, where Prometheus was giving out orders. The primary chore, according to him, was cleaning up the bunker and making it livable again. A couple of the more technologically minded of the group were recruited to help Hephaestus perform a maintenance check on the base’s control systems.

Jude was eager to explore the silo, so he volunteered for cleaning duty. He slowly made his way through the four floors of the structure’s crew quarters, picking up drop cloths and dusting away the years of disuse. Each floor was merely a cross-section of the giant concrete cylinder that had been shaped into the rock face. They were all connected by a central support pillar that had stairs that twisted downward around them to connect to the next floor. A thick hatch similar to the one at the entrance served as a gateway to each level, allowing the inhabitants to seal off any level if the need arose.

Underneath the living area was a mess hall and kitchen. A journey to the other side of the floor revealed a recreation room with free weights and other gymnastic equipment. Further down, on the third level, Jude encountered a wheel of bunk rooms. Each of the spokes of the wheel was a hallway containing five small rooms to a side. It would be more than enough to house the current occupants, with room to grow. Cleaning this level didn’t take long, despite the increased surface area. Thankfully, it seemed as if the detritus was scarcer this far down. He was distracted for a few minutes, however, by another large metal door at the end of one of the spokes. He guessed this was the entrance hallway leading to the control center and the silo, as Eric had described.

He tucked away any questions about it for the moment, as he journeyed to the bottom floor to finish his task, noting that the hatch door here was exceptionally thick. This was obviously a special area, so he stopped to take it in. It contained a small laboratory, medical facility, and server room, all of which were already virtually spotless. Jude was surprised to see that all of the equipment appeared to be on the cutting edge of current technology, even though Hephaestus had mentioned the place had been abandoned for years. It was a testament to his race’s technological prowess, even with limited resources.

The auburn-haired man had already moved his miscellaneous parts to the lab and was focused on reassembling some of the larger pieces. One of the new members of the group, a man who a few hours ago had been a construction worker, was furiously scribbling notes on an old yellow legal pad and creating what seemed to a shopping list of items the engineer would need to further his research. Jude crept back upstairs, before he could be drafted into Hephaestus’ service also.

He looked down at the curving central hallway with its rows of bunks and decided he should claim one for himself. He grabbed a compartment along the outer circumference and fell back on the slim mattress. It wasn’t the most comfortable he’d ever been, but his rapidly increasing exhaustion told him that even the concrete floor would suffice at the moment. Within minutes, he was snoring soundly.

The reports of the New York City bombing spread like wildfire. The wave of terrorism following in Jude Sullivan’s wake had created a mass panic in the American populace. Economic productivity dropped to record levels, as people refused to leave their homes for fear of an attack, not knowing where the next one would be. Washington D.C. was desperate to assuage their fears and get things back to normal, but the administration had nothing to show for its efforts. Some members of the House and Senate were pushing for martial law to be implemented in major cities to give the nation some semblance of order.

It wasn’t until the electronic attack on the NSA headquarters that any dissenting voices in Congress were silenced. Government agents were working at full capacity to keep the details out of the hands of ravenous news agencies, but inaction was certainly not an option. A bill mobilizing troops across the entire eastern seaboard was hastily constructed and passed by a landslide vote. The Senate majority leader suggested they contact the priest who had had so much success tracking down Jude’s conspirators in Europe and ask to borrow his expertise. This Antonio Gallo was the one who had warned them Jude was coming to America, after all. Outside help was desperately needed now that domestic intelligence networks had been compromised.

Gallo arrived in New York City and took up residence near the United Nations headquarters building, a contingent of guards and sycophants never too far away. He began to flesh out an appointment calendar from all manner of heads of state and business leaders. The meetings he held were all behind closed doors, members only. Staffers at the complex whispered among themselves about how odd it was that this man with no worldwide political stature could attract so many callers, but no one dared to ask or even mention such in front of any member of Gallo’s entourage, however. Everyone agreed that menace somehow seemed to reside in the very air his followers breathed.

In front of a camera, however, the man was able to wring charisma out of every word he spoke. Within twenty-four hours of arrival, he gave a press conference in front of the members of the UN and the world. He grieved over the lives lost in the bombing of what had now been officially identified as a homeless shelter, merely carrying out its Biblical mission. He commended the strength and perseverance of everyone affected not only by this event, but also the tragedy in Geneva. He lionized those who had died, lifting up people from all religions as saints in the cause of global peace and prosperity and bellowed in a righteous rage over the dangers of those people in the world afraid of global unity, who would do anything to disrupt it. He swore he would find Jude Sullivan and serve swift and complete justice upon such a heinous monster. Applause erupted, as he wrapped up his speech. It appeared he had the approval of almost all in attendance and with it, the impunity he needed to get the job done at all costs.

Jude sat on one of the couches in the living area of the abandoned missile silo, his face was cold and ashen after watching Gallo’s speech. He looked like the man Jude had been friends with for so many year, but his tone of voice, his movements, and his general aura were alien to him. Did he truly intend to persist until Jude was captured and sacrificed to the public? Did they need a scapegoat so badly, that they were willing to participate in Azazel’s outlandish vendetta?

His thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of a scuffle coming from the main entrance of the bunker. He spun around to get a peek at the doorway, ready to run to cover if the commotion meant trouble. He didn’t hear any sounds of battle, though, which piqued his interest. The shouting came closer, and Jude was able to understand Eric’s voice.

“Go on in and don’t make any sudden moves. We’re right behind you, and this is the only exit,” he spoke with authority.

“Like I told you before, I’m not here to fight,” a shaky male voice protested. “Could you put your gun down, Mister Strauss? Please?”

“Not until you tell me how you know my name,” Eric demanded, as the group burst into the room. He and the other two members of the hunting party were following a strange disheveled man, their rifles trained at his back.

Jude’s curiosity overcame him, and he stood up to get a better look. The other man stopped, as their eyes met. “You! It’s really you!” He exclaimed. “Please, I’m not here to cause any trouble, Mister Sullivan. Could you tell these guys to take it easy?”

Jude took a moment to size up the man. He was slightly pale and overweight. He seemed like he would be more at home in an office than wandering out in the woods, and the slick layer of sweat covering his body was a clear sign that his guess wasn’t too far off. “I think we’ll be okay, Eric,” he said calmly. “Close the hatch for now just in case he has any friends outside.”

He directed his gaze to their prisoner. “You’ll have to forgive them. We haven’t exactly been on vacation the past couple of weeks. Who are you, anyway?”

“Do you mind if I sit down?” the man wheezed.

“Go ahead,” Jude offered.

“My name is Mike Carpenter,” he said, as he fell onto the couch and wiped his brow. “I used to work for the National Security Agency. I was the one that took them out.”

“You’re the guy who blinded the NSA?” Eric asked, incredulous. “Why would you help us?”

“Because I’ve seen them. They’ve infiltrated the government,” Mike replied sternly. “You also needed it. I deleted the street footage of the Escalade pulling out of that alleyway, wiped its registration information from the motor vehicle database, and remotely disabled the GPS transponder. Did you think of that? Be glad I did, or those monsters would be here already.”

Jude was taken aback by Mike’s explanation. “Thanks for being so resourceful. You’ve really done us a huge favor. Hasn’t he, Eric?” He gave his travelling companion a knowing glance, communicating that he stand down. Eric capitulated and signaled for the rest of the troop to stow their weapons back in the racks. “So, Mike. Why did you come
here
, anyway?”

“It was the only place I could think to go,” he admitted and began to open up. “I don’t really talk to my family much, and I don’t have a girlfriend. All I’ve done for the past ten years is monitor high profile personnel for the higher-ups. I knew something was wrong, when the official reports didn’t match what happened. I mean, the government has always applied spin and protected the public interest, but what they were saying about the things you did were just plain
lies
. I saw those men attack you in New York. I saw the footage in Geneva. What’s more, I heard my boss talk about you in an amount of detail he shouldn’t have had access to.”

“What do you mean?” Jude asked intently.

Mike continued, “I mean, they were talking about the failure of the assault team in New York City. None of us knew about it. In fact, I was the first one to discover it. For them to have known you were there hours before I did and mobilize some sort of off-the-books operation...”

“They have their own agenda,” Eric broke in. “Let me guess... It has something to do with the good Father Gallo coming to the United States.”

“It seems so,” Mike agreed. “My superiors consulted with him on a few occasions about you, but they were actually using you as an excuse to consolidate his power here. They are planning on turning America into a police state.” He nodded at the two Grigori standing silently off to the side. “You guys are the same as they are, right?”

They were silent

“Why do you think that was real if everything else was a lie?” Jude asked with a nervous laugh, as he searched to find a way to deflect Mike’s accusation. “No one on Earth can really do what those guys did.”

“Exactly, no one on Earth can do that,” Mike agreed. He turned to the Grigori again, “So where do you come from? Are you Greys, Reptiloids, or something else? At this point, I would even believe it if you told me you were Romulans. I know you can affect electrical objects and control minds. I’m not as dense as my co-workers are. I’ve seen the patterns.”

“None of those species exist to my knowledge,” Prometheus answered behind them. They all jumped in surprise. He had quietly ascended the stairs during their conversation. “If some analog of them does exist, you can be assured they have never visited Earth. We are the sole caretakers of this planet and have been for millennia.”

“Aren’t you a little young to be in charge?” Mike challenged. “What are you?”

Jude sat back, as Prometheus began the long tale Inanna had told him so long ago. He shook his head and cursed himself. It had been a couple of days, since he thought about her and Emily. So much had happened that it was all he could do to keep up with the present. Prometheus’s voice faded into the background, as Jude lost himself in doleful daydreams of what was and what could have been.