The Code War (59 page)

Jabez, chained, looked on his
l
ord and his eyes were sick with anguish.
He tried to remain stalwart yet the imminent proceedings in which
the Lamb would kneel to Satan and plead for his freedom were
overwhelming his courage. I'm sorry, he prayed. Be strong, said the
Spirit.

The Lamb
stepped off the last stair and strode forward, stopping
just in front of the cushion. He and his tormentor beheld each
other while their muted followers in both kingdoms looked on.
Lucifer smiled at his prey.

It was the Leader versus the
Lamb.

The Prince of Liars versus the Prince of
Heaven.

Despair versus Hope. And to all it
seemed that despair held the day.

But the Lamb
bore a calmness and a humour that belonged to another
age.

'Lucifer, it's been a long time. You
should come back to Heaven.'

The Leader gawped, affronted by the
dignity.

'What? A
nd have to worship you and sing your praises all the time
like all the others you've crushed beneath your feet? I think not.
I like being my own boss. I do what I want, when I
want.'

'You weren't always this way. We enjoyed
each other's company long ago. It was good. We used to sing and be
glad.'

'Oh, but you were ever the special one.
The spoilt child. I was always in your shadow. It made me
sick.'

To watchers in both places it
seemed that the Lamb alone stood tall and spoke fair. Lucifer
betrayed himself with his accusations and his mean talk. But this
was not a debate where protagonists won points on the power of
their arguments or the loftiness of their rhetoric. This was a
battle for power and there could be only one winner. Lucifer,
sensing he was losing the upper hand in the exchange of words,
foreclosed the debate and invoked his angelic cudgel.

'Enough of this wasteful talk. You
always did twist my words to get your way. I have Jabez. And if you
want him back, ask me properly. Ask me with respect. Look, I've
even provided you with a silk cushion to protect your sacred knee.
We wouldn't want you to get any more scars now, would we?' He cast
a sniggering look to Bezejel who smirked, sensing blood.

Lucifer looked back at the
Lamb
. 'Let's get on with it. Your angel
is looking poorly. If you want him, flex your knee and ask me
nicely.' Lucifer had spoken harshly, flinging his words as though
they were edged with blades. So it was to his great surprise that
the Lamb did not respond with anger, despair or even submission.
Instead he opened out his arms, smiled at Lucifer with great warmth
and then looked up directly above him as if he had heard
something.

The Blue Diamond
Warehouse

Nancy walked the warehouse
perimeter
through the narrow corridor for
the third time. She removed her shoes again and trotted up the
stairs.

'Yes. We do. Hurt the
police.
'
the gang around Chopper bellowed.

She reached the landing where Dan waited
on one knee, looking up anxiously.

'Right then, let's get started. Wolf
Smoke, into the pit.'

Nancy looked at the mobile platform. She
had thought she had a minute. She didn't. Any second now it would
start to move on its deadly journey and pull out beyond the brieze
block wall that concealed it. The crowd of gangsters below, some of
them armed, would see that it held no human cargo. They would swarm
to the door and any escape attempt would be forlorn. There would be
no time for Nancy and Dan to get down the stairs and around the
corridor to the door before they were intercepted. Chopper and his
gang were already hyped up to kill a policeman. They would kill Dan
immediately. In the mood they were in, they would kill Nancy too if
she was caught with him. They would believe she was really a police
spy.

Have to hold them off.

'I think they mean business.'
There was urgency now in Dan's voice. Nancy watched his mouth move
but barely heard the words. She saw the lips she would never taste.
The cheeks she would never see jowls.
She
forced her eyes bright as her hope dimmed.

'Give me your coat.'

'Why?'

'Just do what I say.'

Dan took off his coat and handed it to
her. Nancy put it on. She stepped onto the platform and lay
down.

'No.' Dan tried to pull her back.

'Everybody, stand around the edge of
the pit. You're going to see a police inspector die.'

Nancy held up her hand, palm out,
stopping him. 'They won't kill me
,' she
lied. 'I'm one of them. Now go and get help.'

Down around the cock pit all eyes turned
and looked expectantly to where the platform would emerge from
behind its safety cover. Chopper pressed the green button on his
hand control.

Nancy pulled Dan's coat over her, tucked
her long brown hair down inside it and turned her face away.

A motor whined like a rising
banshee. Gears engaged with the thump of a distant shotgun. Chains
played out and rattled like a slave ship.

Nancy's platform jerked into motion
taking her out beneath the gantry towards the cock pit. From
beneath her coat she looked back towards Dan and watched as he
stood there turning one way and the other like a tree caught in a
storm. Their eyes met for the last time and then Nancy dropped her
head and moved her body a little so her killers below would know
someone was there.

Dan ran down the stairs, not
thinking about the noise. The clatter of the machinery covered up
any sound he made. He opened the door and ran outside with the
desperation of a man running for the fire brigade while in the
house behind him his baby was dying. He reached Nathan Road and
looked for the first shop that was still open. It was a grocery
store on the other side of the street. Down the road to his right,
Ling was walking quickly on his way back to the Golden
Luck.

'Have you got a phone?'

The store owner indicated the
plastic handset beside the till. Dan dialled 999. Even for a
serving policeman this was the quickest way to get blue lights
flashing. When the operator came on line Dan could barely force the
words out of his mouth.

'Blue Diamond Warehouse. Yaumati.
Murder in progress. Young woman. Please hurry. Please, please
hurry. Please, please, please hurry.' His legs gave way as his face
fell like melting glass. The wail of a wedding night widower came
from his mouth.

Nancy was amazed by the speed the
platform was travelling. Isn't time supposed to travel slowly when
you're about to die? Maybe the machine's operator had a choice of
speeds depending on the weight of the goods on board? No matter,
there was barely time for Dan to get clear even if the machine went
slowly. The gears crunched again as the platform stopped and then a
new mechanism played out the vertical chain and she started to
drop. She thought of Dan and hoped he would be all right. It
wouldn't have worked anyway, she decided. Not with him in the
police and her running prostitutes and corrupting the rich and
powerful. What would they have talked about over dinner every
night? Better this way.

In the pit, Wolf Smoke trotted back and
forth in frenzy, looking up at the lowering platform and lifting up
on his back legs. His mouth was open and salivating in expectation.
Impatient whines interspersed with murderous growls. Every part of
him from his paws to his eyes was placed temporarily at the service
of his sharp teeth. Above him his master fed him words of hate and
death.

Nancy had covered almost her
entire body so that all that was visible was her bare feet, her
blue jeans and Dan's jacket. If anyone had noticed the fine turn of
her ankles or the feminine shape to her rear they had no time to
express it. Peering from under the jacket she saw the rim of the
cock pit pass above her. Dan should be nearing the door by now.
Wolf Smoke, impatient with the hunt, readied himself to
leap.

Nancy stood up and let the jacket
fall. Her elfin shape was revealed in all its youthful beauty to a
gasp of disbelief from two dozen mouths.

She picked out Chopper with her
eyes and lifted up her head, showing more of her bare
throat.

'No,' shouted the two-time sergeant
slasher and would-be policeman killer. He fumbled desperately for
the red button on his control.

Wolf Smoke made his leap springing
straight from the floor to his target and making no mistake. His
forelegs hit Nancy's chest, knocking her back while his incisors
cut deep into the tendons of her young neck and ripped it open. As
she hit the ground he ripped again and tore arteries, airways and
voice box till there was nothing left. Blood poured out over the
ground while Nancy's heart still beat. In a few seconds her body
sagged and the spurting ceased. Wolf Smoke raised his head to look
at his master, searching for the approval he knew was his due. He
barked and panted with excitement. Blood dripped from his mouth.
No-one moved.

Halfway
Island

As the Lamb raised his
eyes,
a voice far, far away could be
heard shouting. It was a voice of urgency, a voice of news, a voice
of joy.

'The price is paid.'

Heads all across Heaven and Hades
turned, probing the void, searching for the caller.

Louder came the voice. 'The price
is paid. Nancy has given her life. Jabez is free. It is the price
Satan demanded. Jabez must go free.'

And a wind like no other anyone
had ever known blew all across Heaven and even Hell and everywhere
in-between and everyone knew that the news was true. And the shout
was taken up by millions of glad voices and 'The price is paid'
echoed and reverberated to every corner of every dimension. More
and more voices shouted 'Jabez is free' and soon all of Heaven,
every angel in every land in the kingdom was proclaiming 'The price
is paid' and 'Jabez is free'.

In Hades the excitement and thrill
on every face turned to
instant despair.
Demons cast themselves upon the ground and buried their heads in
the ash or threw themselves into the lava lakes. And still the
shouts and echoes grew and went out and came back, every time
doubled and re-doubled.

Then the wind which had blown and
brought the truth of the news that the price had been paid was
heard to build into a storm, a tempest, a typhoon. And then an
ear-clattering, rock-smashing boom could be heard in the distance
that came nearer and built louder and when at last it burst with
all its fury upon Halfway the pillars that held Jabez were smashed
into dust and the iron chains that pinioned his wrists were
dissolved into scintillas. Bezejel and Lucifer's female bodyguard
were blown over the side of the island and fell pell-mell into
Inferno landing in disorder. Lucifer was knocked forward and fell
prostrate on his front barely a dozen yards from the Lamb. All
power was gone from him and he was unable to raise himself
up.

Jabez however was lifted by the
wind like seed-pollen on a bre
eze and
landed in front of his lord as if placed there by a giant's
graceful hand.

And now the Lamb
made good use of that cushion which had been
placed in front of him for another purpose. He knelt on it with
both knees and took Jabez' hand in his. 'Welcome home faithful
servant. It's good to have you back.'

'You came for me. I'm just one of
millions. Yet you came for me,' replied a tearful Jabez.

'Of course I came for you. Millions are
made of ones like you.'

And while the watchers in Paradise
looked on they noticed something wonderful. Jabez's broken wing was
no longer shivered and hanging from his side like a broken spar. It
sat beside its twin and fair glistened and sparkled like a sapling
in springtime as a ribbon of light washed over it. Jabez looked
over his shoulder at the fullness of feathers behind him. He flared
and beat his wings twice for pure joy, rising his own height before
settling back in front of the Lamb.

'Let's go home,' said the scarred
one simply.

The Landing Fields -
Paradise

All of Heaven had taken the day
off, it seemed. The streets of every land were thronged with
joyful, chatting angels. Nobody was working - except for those
making and serving food who were calling for extra help. The Music
poured out more powerfully than ever. Handel's Messiah was a
favourite right now of course but there were also kettle drum
bands, steel drums, pop quartets and orchestras with
a cappella
choirs on every corner. The entire sonorous repertoire rose
and fell, rhythm chasing melody around the kingdom in an endless
playful competition yet all blending in harmony like birds singing
different songs in a dawn chorus.

Jo and Chan were sitting with
Jabez asking endless questions about his time in Inferno. Behind
them on a revolving plinth sat the repaired Fundial in all its
visible glory. Jo and Chan were taking commissions for new ships
and were seeing their order book grow beyond all their hopes.
They'd be kept busy designing and building new lightships for
thousands of years.

Jo flicked her head and her dreadlocks
span around like a carousel. 'Did one of those warlocks really give
you water?'