War-N-Wit, Inc. – MeanStreet, LLC (13 page)

“I’m glad all of you seem to know what you’re talking about,” said Mom.
“Because I don’t have a
clue
. And obviously neither does Mia.”

No, she didn’t.
Poor kid looked shell-shocked. “We’ll explain later, Mom.”

A monotonous droning sound filtered into my consciousness and as soon as it triggered, I realized it had been there for some time, gradually increasing in volume.
Equipment? Maybe, but mixed with something else. Something more primitive. Like pickaxes ringing against rock.

“What’s that noise? Anybody else hear it?”

“I’ve been hearing it. Wondered when somebody else was gonna say something, but I didn’t want to interrupt whatever little
private
conversation y’all were having in that little circle while you stared at a piece of jewelry!” Mom rolled her eyes.

“Don’t get in a snit, we said we’d explain later. It’s coming from over there.”
I pointed over to the left. “Hate to leave this little circle, but we’ve got to shift over some.”

We picked our way several hundred yards toward the left, winding through little rocky pathways. The noise increased with every step we took.
Finally we seemed to be right over it. I headed to the rocky overhang and peered down.

“
Whoaaa, Hannah!
” I said.

“Well, that fits, anyway,” Stacy quipped and joined me.
“
Whoaaa, Hannah!
It’s the Seventh Circle of Hell!”

A cavern yawned in front of us
. Crews of humans, rail thin, struggled to lift tools, more or less pickaxes, over their shoulder and then slammed them down against the ugly, rocky walls. Other crews lifted the heavy fragments falling to the ground from the repeated blows and loaded them onto carts, carts pulled by other humans over to a conveyor belt contraption. Octopoids stood over and around them.

The conveyor belt seemed the only thing powered by anything other than sheer brutal manpower. So if they had power to run that, why didn’t they have power to mine with something more efficient than humans? What
was
the damn power source running it? Cable of some sort ran at spaced intervals from the conveyor belt over to the back wall. I followed it with my eyes to little cubicles of some glassy-like substance. The glare made it hard to see inside them. Then a group of octopoids moved and cast a shadow. A human floated in viscous liquid inside the cubicle, wires hooked to the skull on either side. It was a safe bet the other cubicles held the same thing. They were using human brain waves to power that damn conveyor belt.

The octopoids
weren’t cracking whips. They didn’t need to. Those damn tentacles of theirs did just fine. As we watched, one of the men pulling a cart stumbled and fell and two octopoids lashed out with those tentacles from hell. The man screamed and bloody whelps bloomed on his back. But he didn’t get up. He was done. The octopoids didn’t carry whips, but they did carry something else. Something that looked like laser guns.

One of the demons shrugged—more or less—and motioned to two others. They stepped forward, looped tentacles over the man’s arms, and dragged him away from the rocks onto the bare ground.
The other demon raised the laser like thing, fired, and the man disintegrated.

“
Sonofabitch!
” I pulled back from the rocks. “Okay, so that’s the reason they want humans. So what are we gonna do about it?”

Micah smiled. A terrible, beautiful smile. “Does the phrase
avenging angels
hold any meaning for you?”

Chapter Seventeen

“You can’t go in there, he’s in conference!”

“
Raxthan zoranth xchatnaal!”

Michael cocked his head toward the door. “Well, Lucy, aren’t you just Mr. Popularity today? That Razkaalan I hear out there?”

Lucifer’s office door burst open in a mass of flying tentacles.

“
Zanthal xchatnal ranthaz wratkal!!
”

“Did you seriously just call him a double-crossing demon from hell?” Rafael laughed. “Oh, that’s
rich!
Didn’t you ever hear it was dangerous to make deals with the devil?”

Lucifer half rose from his chair and leaned forward on his desk. Red boiled in his cheeks.

“Kaxchotx, what the
fuck
are you
doing
here?! And speak
English
, damn it!”

“Lucy, Lucy! You’re losing your cool, bro!
Your little demon pal’s upset. He’s obviously forgotten foreign languages were never your strong suit. Public opinion to the contrary.” Gabriel crossed his ankles and stretched out his legs.

Kaxchotx folded his tentacles across his chest and glared at Lucifer. “What did you send through?”

“
Shut up! Shut up right now!
We don’t discuss our business in front of outsiders, you stupid octopus!”

“
What
did you just call me?”

“
Octopus!
And
stupid!
”

“Class, kindergarten is now in session. Kax
chotx, you just tell us
all
about it, why don’t you?”

“Gabriel, I’m warning you!”

“Lucy, I know this’ll come as a shock to your system, but none of us are scared of you. Especially Kaxchotx. Right, old son?”

“
Damn straight I’m not scared of him, the double-dealing bastard! I was guaranteed good product! That last batch you sent through! Something’s
wrong
with them! They aren’t scared, they talk back, one of them
threw
my orientation squad clear across the transmitter room! They got tangled up with each other and actually pulled out some of each other’s tentacles and now I’m looking at a damn workers’ comp claim! And they got out of the chamber before the door re-closed and they’re
loose
somewhere out there, in the hills. Who knows what
else
they might do?”

Michael whistled.
“Sounds like Grace came out, alright.”

“Yep, sure ‘nuff,” Gabriel agreed. “
And Kaxchotx, hate to tell you this, but I’m pretty sure you ain’t seen
nothing
yet.”

* * *

“No offense, darlin’,” I said, “but you start throwing around full power down there—would that maybe take those humans out of the equation right along with the demons? Revelations and the Acopolypse and all that. And maybe even us. Not to mention can we get back home if you start nukin’ the place with angel power? Would that cut us off completely?”

Micah frowned.
“Shit.”

“
And here’s something to think about. They can use dimensional doors or portals or whatever the hell you call ‘em, and they’ve got lasers that disintegrate targets in seconds. So
why
are they using something as primitive as humans to mine those rocks?”

“And
did you notice they dragged that poor man away from the rock walls before they blasted him?” Stacy added. “So I’m thinking those rocks, after processing, is their energy source. And it’s really powerful
after
it’s mined and processed. But before then—”

“Before then it’s pretty damn fragile. Easily destroyed. Not the rocks themselves but something in them.”

“And anything with concentrated high-power destroys it.
Soooo
—if we got our hands on some of those lasers and started blasting, I’m pretty sure we could do some serious damage.”

“And just
how
do you think we’re going to get our hands on those lasers?” Mom demanded. “Really, girls. You think they’re just goin’ to hand ‘em over when you say please?”

Stacy smiled at me. I smiled back. We both turned to Mom.

“Welcome! To the world of magic.”

Her eyes widened. “You mean—you
don’t
mean me?”

“We most certainly do.”

“That thing I did? When I threw the slime-balls into each other?”

“Yes ma’am, that’s exactly what we mean.”

“But I don’t even know
how
I did it! And how does throwing things around get us the lasers?”

“Mom. If you can throw something backward—you can pull something forward. Think about it.”

“But—but—”

“Goats butt, chickens cluck, and good little Moms mind their daughters. To paraphrase a very wise woman we know who used to tell us that every time we ever told you ‘but’.
Close your eyes, Mom. Close your eyes and
feel
your power. We need you. You’re the one with a
physical
power. Ours are primarily mental. Neither of us can do anything like that.”

“Yeah, sorry, Mom, but Ari’s right. This time—
you de man
. Concentrate. Pick up that rock over there and bring it to you.”

“I can’t—”

“Grace Louise Anson, you stop all that nonsense right now about ‘can’t’.
You can do anything you put your mind to! That sound familiar?”

“Damn. You sound just like me. Okay, okay.” Mom frowned and stared at the rock Stacy’d pointed to. She closed her eyes and I could
feel
the waves of power radiating out. How had she managed to stay in denial all these years? Why had we never known it?

The rock lifted a few inches. Then a few feet. Then it came hurtling toward us. I grabbed her arm and pulled her back out of the way as all of us ducked.

“Oh, dear!” Mom wrung her hands. “Suppose that’d
hit
one of you? I can’t—”

“Mom. Practice makes perfect. Try it again and this time try to
float
it to you. That one over there.” I pointed to a good-size rock.

Mom sighed, closed her eyes, and tried again.
This time the rock floated through the air and plopped down at her feet.

“How the
hell
did you keep that under wraps all those years, Mom?”

“Sometimes—I think sometimes a little of it got away from me now and again. I just—thought I was imagining things.”

“Well, you’re not imagining a bit of this, Mom. Now. We need a diversion so we can get close enough to be in firing range when Mom floats the lasers out of their hands.”

Micah laughed.
“Mia, you’ve been pretty quiet. Think these guys have ever seen any cats before?”

“Wondered if you were ever going to include me in anything. No, I doubt they’d know what to make of a cat. Especially one plastered on their faces.”

“And what’ll happen if they blast all that angel power with the lasers?” I asked.

“What? Risk hitting moving targets against those rocks they’re so careful with? I don’t think so. C’mon, we’ll all head downhill, get the three of you in position near the bottom.
”

* * *

“Okay, Demon Boy. Give. Tell me what you do with humans.” Chad pointed his gun at Damien’s head as Irene stirred and moaned her way back into consciousness.

“You aren’t going to kill me. You need me if you want to try again to go through.”

“Not anymore I don’t. My father-in-law can push that button just as good as you can.”

“You
showed
them?” Oh yeah, Irene was back in the land of the living. “You
wuss!
” Her features writhed and the skin covering rippled. Masses of waving tentacles burst out of her human camouflage and pulled free of the duct tape. “And I have had
enough
of all of you!” She lunged toward them, tentacles flailing.

Pfft.
Spike shook his head as he lowered his gun. “Damn, octopus brains just ain’t very appetizing. Remind me never to order octopus at a seafood restaurant again. Chad, move this along. These silencers are about out of silence. Another shot from either of us is going to be a lot louder and we’ll have to get out of here. ”

“
You never order octopus anyway. You don’t like it. Yeah, let’s dispense with shooting for now.” Chad stepped closer to Damien and grabbed the mangled masses covered by Spike’s makeshift pillowcase-duct taped bandages. He squeezed. Damien screamed. “Last chance, Demon Boy.
What do you do with the humans?
”

* * *

“Okay.” We’d maneuvered our way down to the base of the trail and into position. “Mark and move!”

Micah and Mia shimmered. Two black cats
blinked up at us in replacement of two angels in human form. Lithe bodies hugged the rocks, enroute to target zone.

Micah leapt onto a big boulder hugging the mine’s wall.