Rise of the Nephilim (20 page)

Mike discovered his niche in Hephaestus’ lab. He initially gawked at the technology Hephaestus had developed, but he impressed the Architect with the speed at which he grasped certain concepts inherent in ongoing projects. Before long, he was working alongside the Architect, and they were almost inseparable afterward.

The few remaining members of the
Aspides
regrouped over the next few days. More Grigori volunteers trickled in also, as rumors of Hephaestus’ status passed among them. Outside the rolling hills of the Adirondacks, the military continued to position itself in America’s cities under the guise of keeping the peace. According to scouting reports, similar events were occurring across the globe, as people grew more fearful and upset that the fugitives had not been caught. Multiple groups were springing up, touting the end of days as predicted by their various holy books, sparking riots and violent clashes among the competing religions. Within the span of two weeks, half of the modernized world was being policed by military forces.

It was around this time people began to disappear. The media blamed Jude and his underground network of terrorists, which sparked further civil unrest and justified the extreme peace-keeping measures being taken. Azazel and his propaganda machine had spun their stories so well, that he had already developed a fervent following of disciples ready to march in his name to defend the populace where the military could not. According to various independent internet journalism sites, many of these gangs were responsible for random beatings and murders. The merest suspicion of an association with Jude was enough to spark vigilante justice.

Jude helplessly watched the melodrama unfold from the cover of the silo. He had taken to aimlessly wandering up and down the levels of the base and reading some of the books from the small library in the living area to escape the monotony. Eric took over as leader of the hunting party and spent the majority of his time in the wilderness, looking for extra food and scouting for any possible danger. The rest of the time, he could usually be spotted poorly sneaking out of Artemis’ bunk. Between his excursions and Jude’s solitude, the two usually talked only around meal times.

They were both sitting at one of the tables discussing the violence and paranoia gripping the countryside, when Mike stumbled up the stairs, calling for Jude. Jude jumped up from the table and ran over to him, curious as to the reason for the commotion.

“Mike! What’s going on?” Jude asked.

“He… he did it! You have to come and see!” The technician managed to spit out in his excitement, as he grabbed Jude’s sleeve.

“What did he do?” Jude continued to press. He had seen Mike and the Architect working on some sort of project, but he had learned to stay well enough away, lest Hephaestus revert to shouting over his work being interrupted. He supposed this was related to the accomplishment the other man was raving about.

“He finished it! I mean, they’ll still be a threat, but now we actually have a way to stamp them out,” Mike rambled, continuing to lead Jude down to the lab. He babbled partly to Jude and partly to himself throughout the entire journey, speaking only in half-finished thoughts and sentences. His excitement had gotten the better of him.

He ushered Jude into the lab, where Hephaestus was tinkering with a cobbled-together mess of wires and metal. The object looked vaguely like a rifle, meaning it had an identifiable stock and trigger, but it was covered in odd electronics and ended in a barrel that looked more like an antenna than that of a normal gun.

“What is that?” Jude asked, trying to determine the possible nature of such a strange thing.

Hephaestus finally took notice of Jude and answered him grimly. “This is the weapon that will allow us to fight and kill Nephilim, just like you wanted.”

Jude felt his face go flush. “Hephaestus… I’m sorry you had to do this…”

Hephaestus waved his apology away. “Please… don’t. The time for peace is past. The time for terrible deeds has come.” He continued his explanation of the gun. “You may notice some of the elements from the apparatus we used to project your consciousness.”

Jude didn’t.

Hephaestus continued, “Mike used the same basic principles from that machinery and helped me translate it into this device. This beautiful little piece of hardware, however, creates a disturbance in the quantum field that forces a specific waveform collapse in a localized area. It’s too weak to affect solid matter, but it’s strong enough to affect any targeted energies inhabiting the same space.”

“Oh…” Jude responded slowly, as he tried to grasp just what the Architect meant.

Mike picked up on the glazed look in Jude’s eyes. “He means it traps the Nephilim in the bodies they inhabit. If the host dies, they die. No more jumping from person to person.”

Jude whistled and leaned in closer to inspect the weapon. “No kidding? That’s great! How well does it work?”

“We don’t know yet,” Hephaestus admitted. “The power it takes to manipulate the universe so precisely is more than any battery here on earth can output. I’m working out a rough power cell that will be compatible, but that will take a little more time. With your level of technology, it’s akin to trying to make an automobile out of driftwood.”

“We have to make sure it works,” Jude urged. “Do you think we can use the current power grid to conduct a test fire?”

“It’s risky, but I think I can rig something up for a short demonstration,” the engineer promised. “In the meantime, we need a test subject. As soon as you do that, we can get to work.”

Jude accepted the mission wholeheartedly and rushed back upstairs. He gathered up Eric, Prometheus, and Artemis and recounted what he had just been shown. They all agreed the device needed to be properly tested before being deemed an effective weapon.

The next morning, Eric, Jude and Artemis struck out from the shadow of the silo’s stone entrance in one of the SUVs. They recruited a few of the other
Aspides
, who left their bodies behind in a medicated coma. They were tasked with scouting the surrounding area for any sign of an errant enemy that could be taken into custody. The state capitol of Albany was only a couple of hours south from their hideout, so they made their way to I-87 and followed it south to the city. Once in the city proper, Artemis communicated with some of their disembodied allies to navigate routes free of military checkpoints. They finally stopped in a small parking deck just outside a cordoned-off area around the capitol building.

The three surveyed the street from the railing of the structure in an attempt to formulate a plan. A black swirl of what seemed like smoke drifted into view near Artemis and sang its familiar esoteric song. She tilted her head and listened to what the phantasm had to say.

“It seems we have a few targets to choose from,” She translated. “The advance scouts don’t see any way for us to get in, but they think they can lead one of them out to us.”

“What guarantee do we have that our quarry won’t just escape its body once we corner it?” Eric asked.

Athena smirked, “We have our methods.” She bid the swirling mist to return to work and walked back to the car to grab a few pairs of binoculars. She handed Jude and Eric each a pair and knelt down behind the concrete barrier overlooking the street to keep a low profile. Jude and Eric followed suit, and the three began their stakeout in search of their prey.

Thirty minutes passed slowly, before they heard the sing-song voice of the scout. “Aha!” Artemis exclaimed. “Look down there. It’s the man in the suit with the green tie. They have convinced him a couple of us have succumbed and want to join the Nephilim. The fool should be up here soon.”

They readied their weapons and hid behind a car a few rows near the elevator entrance. Before long, the man Artemis had pointed out exited the stairwell and began walking toward the SUV. A black human-shaped miasma eddied beside him, engaging in an ethereal conversation.

Artemis rushed out and threw her hand forward, palm out. The resulting telekinetic energy threw the unprepared man face-down onto the ground. Before he had the chance to react, her knee was nestled in between his shoulder blades, and the barrel of her rifle rested against his head. Eric and Jude hurried to either side of him to cover her, in case he tried to throw her off. He began screaming in a pitch not possible for the human anatomy, but was cut off promptly after Artemis punched him in the temple.

“Enough of that,” she whispered in triumph. “Don’t try to run, either, Nephilim filth. We have you surrounded.”

The man laughed and spoke again in a deep menacing voice. “And what are your human lapdogs going to do? Tickle me to death?”

Artemis punched him again to quiet him, as four swirling shadows angrily manifested themselves around him. Their
Aspides
companions were sending a clear message.

Artemis continued, “You know exactly what I mean, monster! We are all prepared to sacrifice ourselves, if it means stopping you from running back to your superiors. I suggest you keep that in mind.” She stood up and yanked him to his feet, as the quartet of disintegrated back into their normal translucent, wispy form. They kept guard around the prisoner, maintaining visible form, until he was securely bound and thrown into the back of the vehicle. Everyone climbed back in, and Artemis drove out of the parking garage and back out of the city into the foothills.

The captive Nephilim remained recalcitrant and defiant on the ride back to the mountain base, but any attempt to fight back was met with the reappearance of the four guardian Grigori. When they arrived at the base, Artemis pulled the man out of the car.

“Please help me,” the man begged Jude, as she dragged him into the compound. His demeanor had shifted into a pitiful state. “He won’t let me go. I don’t want to die!”

Jude’s resolve faltered, and he ran forward to stop Artemis. Eric held onto him. “This has to be done,” he reminded the academic. “Just remind yourself that it’s probably a trap.”

Jude sighed, “I know.”

The two walked inside and headed down to the lab, where their detainee was being tied down to a metal chair and attached to monitoring equipment. The swarm of undulating clouds sang angrily around him, as he fearfully looked around the room. The demon wanted desperately to flee, but there was nowhere to run.

Hephaestus did as he had promised and had wired the quantum gun into the power grid. He mounted the device to a bipod for stability, while Mike ran diagnostics. Hephaestus flipped a switch on the weapon and it emitted a high pitched whine, as its capacitors charged up. He placed his eye behind the sight and pointed it toward the Nephilim.

“Can’t we discuss this?” the man pleaded. His wrinkled suit twisted further, as he tested his restraints. “I’ll tell you anything you want. Just don’t hurt me!”

Hephaestus looked at him and responded flatly, “Then how will we know it works?” He turned to the others in the room, “Will all nonessential personnel please clear the room now?”

The room cleared out, except for Mike, Eric, Artemis, and Jude. A glowing red light on the device shifted from red to green, and he fired. The space directly in front of the gun crackled and rippled. Bright purple light from billions of newly created photons rushed outward, leaving a momentary spot on Jude’s eye.

Their test subject cringed for a second and emitted an animalistic scream, as the two rival minds inside merged. He stared at the surrounding group of people with pure madness in his eyes and pointed his finger at them, as if to release an energy bolt. Nothing happened. The loss of his superhuman abilities did not faze him in his berserk state, however. He merely fought against his restraints, desperate to attack any living thing near him.

Hephaestus ignored the struggle and continued to study the diagnostics of the medical equipment. The single consciousness trapped inside the man’s body finally sagged in defeat, weeping and begging for death. Athena promptly unsheathed the hunting knife strapped to her hip and quickly ended his suffering with a swift stab to the heart.

“We’ll have them soon, sir,” one of Azazel’s underlings claimed confidently, as he burst into the office the Nephilim leader had claimed at UN headquarters. “We just received a report of an anomalous power drain in the power grid of the mountains upstate. A query with local law enforcement also revealed a rash of disappearances in the area that we could not account for. The
Aspides
must be gathering there.”

The leader of the fallen ones looked up from his computer screen with a smile. “Well, well… they slipped up again. Put Asmodeus in charge of gathering our comrades and planning an assault. Tell him this is his last chance, before he is banished permanently. Relay any future data directly to me.”

“Yes sir,” his subordinate saluted and left the room.

He looked at the window and mused at the reflection of Gallo’s face staring back at him. If the Grigori had finally decided to interfere and rob him of his freedom here on Earth, then he would have to be sure to scatter them like chaff in the wind.

Prometheus stood in the base’s war room, situated between the stacked crew quarters and the silo proper. It was here he had been gathering data about the outside world and piecing together the tidbits he had gleaned. They were minute, but he had followed the subtle skeins of information on troop movements and equipment transfers to Air Force bases in the surrounding area. He was no stranger to subterfuge, and all of his experience warned him that they were being quietly surrounded. He called a small meeting with the humans and the key members of his team to inform them of the situation.

Eric leaned back in his chair and broke the ensuing silence. “Well,” he said, “we knew this was going to happen eventually, right? What’s the plan now?”

Prometheus furrowed his brow in concentration and crossed his arms. “Now that we have a weapon, we can set a trap. Azazel will surely send an army of his best troops against us, so we need to be prepared. Hephaestus, how is the power supply for your gun coming along?”

Hephaestus was slouched in his chair, picking at his fingernails. His head perked up at the mention of his name, and he leaned forward. “I still have some tests to run, but I can have it ready by tomorrow.”

“Great,” Prometheus said, visible relief breaking through his normally stoic demeanor. “That makes me somewhat breathe easier.” He resumed his solemn air, an odd look for his youthful face, and continued with the briefing. “On a heavier note, we need to discuss our defenses and prepare for the worst…”