Great White Throne (22 page)

“I will.”

“Thank you. Protect him, if you can. I know the end is coming, but I just want to see him one more time.”
 

LATER THAT DAY, while the order was talking and praying in the hideout, two new people showed up. They both wore hooded cloaks. One of them strode through the door like he owned the place. He pulled back his hood, revealing a young face and long black hair pulled back into a knot.

“Riku!” Zhang Tao said, and they exchanged formal bows. “What news do you bring?”

“I’ve come from Tel Aviv. I learned more about Don Cristo’s plan.”

The other cloaked figure had already left, never entering the room. No one else seemed to notice. “Who was with you?” I asked.

Riku turned to the empty doorway, then back to me with a curious expression. “I’ve come alone. No one followed me. Are you Elijah?”

I nodded.

“What did you see?” Zhang Tao asked me.

“Another person. Someone was with Riku, stood in the doorway a moment, then walked away.”

“Perhaps one of God’s messengers?” Zhang Tao said.
 

I eyed the doorway. “Maybe.”

Zhang Tao smiled. “They continue to protect us. Come, let’s all sit, share some tea, and hear what Riku has seen.”

Moses served the tea while Riku began to tell us his story. I learned that he had previously served in the ISA in Japan. He couldn’t have been much older than I. He talked about the technology Don had harnessed. “You ever wonder how he operates in so many places at once?” he asked, with his eyes on me.

I didn’t need to guess. “His drones serve as his eyes and arms.”

Riku shook his head, wearing a slight smirk. “That’s only part of it. What do you think is behind the drones?”

“Demons.” I shuddered at the memory. “I’ve felt something at work in them. Something dark.”

“And how would spirit animate a machine?”

“Riku, just explain,” Zhang Tao said.

Riku’s eyes were amused as he stared at the wisened man. “Everyone says this Elijah kid is smart. Just wanted to see if it’s true.”

I kept my voice calm: “Don’s adviser mentioned superintelligence.”

Riku nodded. “It’s something like that. The ISA hadn’t succeeded in its research, but Don did. Or was about to.” He looked to Naomi. “But you already knew that.”
 

A conflicted look crossed Naomi’s face. “No, I mean, we all know Don has been developing powerful machines.”

“What about Charles?” Riku pressed.

Charles
. My friend. I’d last seen him at the Super Bowl, but it hadn’t been him. Just his body. I looked to Naomi.

“The Captain suspected Don,” she began. “There were whispers of UN superintelligence research. The drones had gotten stronger, faster, but they’d never crossed the threshold into their own creative ability. That kept humans in control. Don was pouring immense funds into breaking this barrier. It would have been a catastrophe.”

Zhang Tao leaned forward and spoke. “The devil wanted to create a different kind of life. I believe the enemy has never liked God’s creation—mankind.” He paused. “How did you stop this?”

“ISA’s main research center was in Shanghai,” Riku said. “Naomi’s group in ISA-7 had focused their surveillance there. But I found something near my home in Kyoto. My dad was a UN scientist. He let a few things slip that made me suspicious. He talked about
exciting discoveries
and
changing the world
—given his work with neurology and coding, I figured it meant something big. I tipped off Naomi.”

“I told the Captain,” Naomi said. “He never cared where we got our information. He assumed we’d report more freely that way. He just wanted to know, and he never ignored a lead. He called together a team. Four ISA-7 agents came by drone. Charles led us in person. We followed all the normal steps. Fake identity. Cleaning crew. Entry at night. We made it inside the underground lab without any alarm. Nothing about the lab was unusual. Stacks of hardware. Brain scanners. Coding stations. But then Charles synced with one of the stations.” Her eyes closed, wincing at the memory. “I can still see his face. The terror, the disbelief. He told us we had to destroy the place immediately.”

“What did he see?” I asked.

“I don’t know. That’s why I haven’t brought it up. I never knew what he saw, or what it all meant. But we did what Charles said. The Captain ordered the lab’s destruction. We set the explosives and fled. Before we could make it out the door, the place’s security was somehow triggered. I still have no idea what happened. Something severed my sync. I was ejected from the drone, and next thing we knew, Don was using Charles’s corpse against us.”

“And that leads to what I’ve just discovered,” Riku said. “I was in the ISA data center in Tel Aviv when the solar flare hit.” He pulled a badge out of his coat pocket and smiled. “Cleaning crew, unit 23. I think it was the same kind of research center, except it was full of human brains. Androids were dissecting them, studying them, with guidance from human scientists. But these machines, they were also building organic bodies in large test tubes. They were twisting human DNA into something else. It wasn’t—I don’t know how to say it—it was … grotesque. The weight of evil is heavy in that place.”

“What did the bodies look like?” Zhang Tao asked.

“They were made of metal
and
flesh. They had different shapes. Some with legs, some with wheels. Some with arms, some with guns. The androids were installing human brains in them, with spinal cords and everything. I think the combination of coding and biology, whatever it was, I think it was superintelligence.”

“These must be the machines fighting for Don,” I said, remembering Azazel. “They’re more than drones.”

Riku was nodding. “They had life. They were the devil’s creation.”

“How long has this been going on?” Zhang Tao asked.

“A few months, but the solar flare wiped them out. I traveled as fast I could to Jerusalem, running most of the way. I followed the order’s trail of signs.”

Zhang Tao stood slowly, stretching his legs and his back. He looked over our group. “What the devil attempts,” he said, “the Lord will undo. Where evil takes grip, God sets us free. Surely the end is at hand. Let’s pray for safety until then. Let’s pray that sinners will be saved.”

THE GROUP TALKED until the early evening. They spoke of the past month, of others they had lost. My mind drifted. Brie’s words about Chris and Zhang Tao’s story had sparked an unexpected conviction. I suddenly knew how to use my last day, to make it the best day. I had to ask Naomi to marry me.

My eyes settled on her. I watched her talking with her friends. I watched her face light up with love. Eventually she noticed me staring. She shrugged, smiled, frowned, made a funny face.
 

“What is it?” she finally asked.

A few others looked to her, then to me.

“Let’s get some fresh air,” I said.
 

“Why?”

I stood and walked to her. Moses held her son in his arms. He nodded for her to go ahead. I took her hand and we went down the stairs, heading outside. I didn’t care what the others thought. I didn’t care how crazy this was going to sound. We had only a short time left to live.

We found a small courtyard behind the apartment building. A burnt tree loomed over an empty and cracked fountain in the center. With no artificial lights around, stars flooded the night sky. The moon looked so swollen that it would burst.
 

I sat beside Naomi on a concrete bench. “Romantic spot, right?”

She smiled. “We’ve seen better. Remember that first night in DC, sitting and eating ice cream on the bench in Lafayette Park?”

“I’ll never forget it.”

“You’ve come a long way since then. You’re better now.”

Better. Without my precept. Without the ISA. Without my father. I didn’t know what to say.

“I mean it,” she continued. “That night—almost a year ago—you paraded around like a rooster trying to impress a hen.”

“So you were impressed?”

She shook her head, her eyes playful. “Not at all, but I was curious. You weren’t just any rooster. You were haunted.”

“That’s the look I was going for—haunted rooster.”

She laughed. “You told me about your dream on that bench. The first dream, with the dragon and St. Peter’s. Did you bring me out here to tell me about another dream?”

I fumbled for the right words. I embraced the awkward. “You know how much you mean to me.” I took her hand in mine. “You stole my breath the first time I saw you. You stole my mind the first time we synced. Remember?”

“That was after you whisked me away from DC to that fancy little inn in the country.”

“When you were still playing games with me.”

“Fair enough,” she said, looking down at our hands. “The games ended in Rome.”

“You were vulnerable after Don touched you. Nothing could have pulled me closer. I think it helped me grow stronger, too. In the desert. In Montana. In Geneva. I’ve grown every step of the way. That’s the only reason I have the courage now to say this.”

“What?” she asked, but I was already kneeling.
 

She gasped, her hand covering her mouth.
 

“Naomi, will you marry me?”

Tears filled her eyes. She tilted her head back and stared up at the stars. The moon cast the long lines of her neck in silvery light.

I was suddenly uncertain. “I know you weren’t expecting this.” I tried to explain. “I know it’s a crazy time. The world is falling apart. The dev—”

“Stop,” she said. “Just stop.” She stood and pulled me to my feet. Her moist eyes were level with mine. “Yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yes.” Her lips pecked mine. “You are brilliant. We will celebrate, we will live and love. We’ll get married, tonight!”

My heart raced. My mind still didn’t believe it. “Tonight?”

She clasped her arms around my neck and kissed me again. Our lips parted. After a while—a minute, an eternity—she pulled back. She exhaled. “No reason to wait,” she said, smiling wide.

We went together to tell the others. Most looked surprised, but not Brie, not Moses. They looked overjoyed, and like they expected it. Maybe I’d had that I’m-gonna-propose look on my face.

Everyone helped make quick arrangements for a ceremony. It was not quite what I’d expected for my wedding—a burnt-out apartment building with a few dozen guests and a little washstand serving as the podium. We didn’t send invitations. We didn’t plan an after-party. But we couldn’t have been happier.