The War in Heaven (45 page)

“What are we doing?” asked Rolf, as they stood before the wall.

“We are going in under a flag of truce,” replied Cordon.

“Do you really believe that they will honor it?” asked Rolf, who, under his commander’s orders, had also dropped his sword.

“I’m not sure,” said Cordon. “If you don’t return within three hours, they are under orders to begin the assault. They have my battle plans. I do hope it doesn’t come to that. Are you ready?”

Rolf took a deep breath as he took his commander’s hand and walked into the wall into which he had vanished just an instant earlier. For a moment, they seemed to be walking through a mist. They emerged into an illuminated cavern. They were facing over 100 dark angel and human warriors—their weapons trained on them.

“We ask you not to shoot,” said Cordon, holding his white flag before him. “We are unarmed. We come under a flag of truce.”

A dark angel stepped forward, eyeing the two carefully. “Let me guess. You are, no doubt, going to ask for our surrender, guaranteeing us merciful terms if we turn over the humans to you.”

“On the contrary,” said Cordon, “I am not asking for your surrender or the humans in your care. You can keep them for all I care. I am asking for your help. I wish to speak to your leader, Abaddon.”

“You have found him,” said the dark angel. “I am Abaddon.”

Cordon bowed slightly, as in an angelic greeting. “I am Cordon, and this is my lieutenant, Rolf.”

“So, you are Cordon,” replied Abaddon. “I know of you. Why would I wish to speak to you? My words would be with your superiors.”

“Sadly I have no superiors,” replied Cordon. “You have seen to that. I am the ranking minion of Hell.”

“So what business would you have with me?” asked Abaddon.

“The thing that your people created,” replied Cordon. “It is something that now threatens us both…a hole in the thing that the humans call space time. I am prepared to help you close that hole.”

“How would you know of such things?” asked Abaddon.

“Because I am one of the original designers of Sheol,” said Cordon. “The only one still remaining. We don’t have much time. If you will accept my help, it is offered. I might have an idea as to how to close that hole. If you agree, I will send Rolf back through that wall of yours and my forces will withdraw. On the other hand, you could destroy us and have some temporary satisfaction before my forces level this place. What shall it be? Revenge? Or do we get to work on saving our world?”

“And if we could close that hole, what would happen afterward?” asked Abaddon.

“A treaty,” replied Cordon, “a treaty that would stand so long as I ruled Satan’s domain. Personally, I do not believe that he is coming back. Trust me when I tell you, I would be more than reasonable. You might be pleasantly surprised.”

Lenar stepped up to Abaddon’s side. “I seriously doubt that he can be trusted.”

Abaddon looked into Cordon’s eyes. “Send your minion through the wall and call your forces off. So long as you stand by your agreement, I will stand by mine. Come with me.”

“I am hesitant to leave you here alone,” said Rolf. “I fear for your safety.”

“Don’t,” replied Cordon. “I feel that I am in good hands.” He looked toward Abaddon.

Rolf nodded, and after taking a deep breath, walked back through the wall.

Cordon walked at Abaddon’s side, flanked by both human and dark angelic warriors. They proceeded to the audience chamber.

Cordon’s presence was met with disdain, confusion, and fear as they made their way through the maze of tunnels. They had almost reached the audience chamber when Cordon encountered his one-time prisoner, Julie, standing along the corridor. He paused.

“Julie, child, I am glad to see you again.”

Cordon moved on. His presence had sent a shiver through her very soul.

They entered the audience chamber where several members of the war council and the science committee, including Nikola, sat. They rose at the sight of a demon in their midst. After a brief introduction, Cordon had the floor.

“Destroying Sheol in the manner you did was reckless,” began Cordon, “but we don’t have time to discuss that now. I believe I can assist you in developing a device that will close the fissure in space time you created. A series of graviton pulses set off from the other side of the fissure might close it. I have no way of getting there or powering the devices, but I suspect you do. As I see it, we need each other.”

For 20 minutes the debate raged as to whether one of his kind was capable of telling the truth, but they eventually permitted him to join the group. They prayed that it was not a mistake.

Tim’s life in the cave was becoming more routine. Occasionally his small friend, Goliath, brought him a present. Lately, the gifts had taken the form of small luminous crystals, from places unknown, that brought ever more light to his dark world. It took only a few to illuminate his favorite cavern
room—the one with the pool. Yes, he could get use to this. Being a cave dweller was infinitely preferable to the alternative. In fact, he never so much as stuck his nose out of the cavern entrance. The hot dry world above could be the realm of the demons, but this cool damp world below was his.

He spent hours exploring the many side passages. Most went only 100 feet or so to dead ends, or led to tunnels too narrow to crawl into. Others went much farther and deeper, to other cavern rooms with their own branching tunnels. Always, Goliath was there when he explored. He would have felt ill at ease without him.

Then came the day when Goliath brought a friend home with him—another of his own kind. It took just a passing glance for Tim to realize that this one was a female. Like Goliath, she accepted this human as a friend. Tim decided to name her Cindy, for no particular reason. Like Goliath, she took up residence in the cavern. Tim couldn’t have been happier. They stayed close to Tim when they were in the cavern, often sleeping directly on or around him. Their presence was reassuring, and he talked to them for hours, mostly about himself and how much he appreciated them. They seemed so attentive. It helped him to know that he wasn’t alone.

Tim wondered if eventually there would even be more of them, tiny ones. He supposed that he would just have to wait and see.

F
or the better part of three days the scientific and engineering debate as to what could be done with a hole in Hell’s space time raged. At first, the group shunned Cordon and his ideas. He was, after all, a demon, a dark minion of Satan. Yet, they quickly discovered the wealth of knowledge he possessed on the subject. In addition, he was very much unlike any demon they had ever dealt with before. He was highly focused, yet soft spoken and not prone to anger.

They also discovered that he was true to his word. His army had withdrawn totally. Abaddon’s scouts reported that they were nowhere to be found within a 100-mile radius of Refuge. He was here alone and unarmed, and he offered constructive ideas, as well as new often unheard of technologies. The others were beginning to accept him.

Slowly a plan was emerging, developed mainly by Cordon and Nikola—a means of closing the hole in space time. They realized why they needed to work together. Neither side alone had the means of deploying this technology. It was a sort of anti-graviton bomb, powered by the same technology that powered the Spirit and the device they had used on Sheol. Still, the delivery of the device was fraught with danger. They had neither the time to test the device or run extensive simulations on it. It would have to operate properly the first time. Nearly one percent of Hell’s atmosphere had vanished into the maelstrom already, and now even the Sea of Fire was being pulled into the void.

In the audience chamber, a multidimensional model of the terrible rent in space time was displayed above the conference table using equipment borrowed from the Spirit.

Tesla pointed toward the great whirlpool. “This rift in space is like nothing you’ve ever seen before. It is not a black hole or wormhole; there are no tremendous gravitational tidal forces associated with it. It will not reach out and grab you. However, the atmospheric pressure here is forcing the atmosphere into the vacuum on the far side producing gale force winds in its vicinity. There, powerful radiation is ionizing it and whatever else is pulled in. Those charged particles are directed by magnetic fields toward Earth. There it emerges from hyperspace to create havoc. If it is not stopped, it will eventually sterilize our world.”

“This crisis started with a bomb, and it is a bomb of sorts that shall end it,” continued Tesla. “Cordon and I will need to fly the Spirit into hyperspace, but not through the rift … attempting to enter the rift would be nothing short of suicide. We will enter from approximately a hundred miles up. There, we shall approach the rift from the far side. We will release three devices. They will utilize a drive system not unlike that of the Spirit to hover just beyond the rift. Once they are placed, we will back off to a safe distance and detonate them. Each will produce a tremendous anti-graviton pulse that will fuse the space time continuum and seal the hole. Ironically, the power to produce this pulse will be obtained by scrapping the explosive element from the remaining two bombs I brought with me.”

Victoria van Voth looked to Cordon. “Have you ever tried something like this?”

“No,” replied Cordon. “But the technology will work. It has been tested for other applications, just not this one.”

Abaddon looked at Cordon suspiciously. “What purpose would such a device serve for a demon?”

“I prefer the term fallen angel, if you don’t mind,” replied Cordon. “We used this technology on a smaller scale to make Sheol work, to slip the spirit of one of our kind into the magnetic stream of the ether and, from there, journey to Earth.”

“I believe it will work,” said Nikola. “I have sufficient fuel on board the Spirit to get us there and back. I’ll need Cordon with me because he knows this anti-graviton technology better than I do. I’d never even considered such a technology until just a few days ago.”

“The rift is growing,” said Cordon. “If we wait much longer, I do not believe this plan will be effective. It will take two days to build the devices.”

“And at least that long to modify the Spirit to do this job,” noted Nikola. “We need to begin now if we are going to pull this off.”

It took over an hour, but eventually the rest of the committee concurred with Cordon and Nikola’s plan. Now all eyes were on Abaddon; his would be the final word.

“Do what you need to do,” said Abaddon. “The matters of which you speak are beyond my experience. I shall defer to the decisions of the experts. I hope you are right.”

The work started. Cordon briefed Victoria as to the nature of the circuits that she would have to create. It was not an easy task. The technology of the angels and fallen angels was very different from anything she had ever seen. Yet, she produced work that met or exceeded Cordon’s expectations.

Through it all, Julie acted as Cordon’s lab assistant. In the past two days, not a dozen words beyond what related to the business at hand had passed between them. It was a difficult assignment. Never had she thought to see him again; now they worked together. He brought back memories of those nightmarish years on the altar. Yet, he had also been the one who took her from them, and indirectly brought her here. He made it a point to be kind
to her and made no reference to those terrible days, but it was festering within her soul. She had to confront him.

It was during a break from their labors that she found him alone in the lab. She had brought a cup of water to him, as he had once done for her.

“I didn’t know if you drank water or not,” she said.

Cordon smiled, accepting the cup. “Not often; it is Hell, after all. I do, however, like to drink water from time to time. Thank you, Julie.”

Julie was leaning against the wall, drinking her own cup of water, trying to find the strength to confront him. Yet, now she didn’t know what to say.

Cordon made eye contact with his former prisoner. “It must be difficult for you Julie. I can understand that.”