Bonnie raised a hand to shield her eyes from the crimson sun and searched for the jet and helicopter. The distinctive sounds throttled the air, but neither craft was in sight. Still carrying Excalibur, she flew to the top of the pole and scanned the sky. Two splotches moved north to south far away to the west, maintaining a consistent gap as they drifted.
Bonnie furrowed her brow. The jet had to be faster than that helicopter. Why wouldn’t Billy get out of range? It could shoot him down.
She looked at the highway and shouted to Sapphira, “What’s the plan?”
“Billy’s going to lead the helicopter past me.” Sapphira kept her hands lifted. Her palms sizzled with sparks. “I’ll try to set it on fire.”
“But even Excalibur couldn’t penetrate it. How can you?”
“Billy’s going to—” She craned her neck. “Look! They’re getting closer!”
The jet zoomed by going eastward, a mere twenty feet above ground. The chopper followed at the same altitude, maybe a quarter of a mile behind.
A voice crackled in Bonnie’s lapel clip. “Do you have me patched through?”
Bonnie sucked in a breath. Billy!
“Affirmative,” Larry said through the clip. “Everyone can hear you.”
“Good. Got a status?”
“The pilot is ready to fire an air-to-air missile. I advise evasive maneuvers.”
“No kidding.”
Now far in the distance again, the Learjet banked hard and turned a 180. It lined up with the highway and flew toward Sapphira. The helicopter veered and pursued.
“The pilots are planning to shoot bullets close to Sapphira,” Larry said. “They hope the scare will get you to surrender.”
Walter’s voice came through as if spoken from a tunnel. “Try it, macho man. If you pick on that girl, she’ll burn your britches.”
“Larry!” Billy shouted. “Do they have a lock on me?”
“Affirmative. The commander called the payload unconventional. He wants the pilot to shoot you down while you are close to the stadium, in order to deliver, as he put it, ‘A second dose to the scaly devils.’ I assume, therefore, that the missile carries something that is toxic to the dragons.”
“Then I’ll have to lead them away. I can outrun that hunk of junk.”
“Negative. If you evade, the pilot will likely break off pursuit and again attack the stadium directly. You will no longer be a distraction.”
“So we’ll keep playing cat and mouse.” The Learjet ascended and descended in rapid fashion, as if following a hilly course. Not far behind, the helicopter flew in a beeline and slowly closed the gap.
Both engines roared. Chopper blades riddled the air. Bonnie put her fingers in her ears. Billy was taking a terrible risk, but it seemed that he had no choice.
“The pilot is ready to fire,” Larry said. “He is astonished that you returned to the stadium and are putting your friends in danger.”
“That’s because he can’t think past his cocky trigger finger.” Billy’s voice lowered. “Walter, the switch is right there. Get ready.”
Just as the Learjet passed Sapphira, the drag chute sprang out. The chute snapped off, flew back, and draped the chopper’s windshield. The moment the chopper buzzed over Sapphira’s head, she pointed at it and shouted, “Ignite!” The drag chute burst into flames.
The chopper banked hard. The flaming chute flew up into the blades. As it ripped to shreds, the helicopter spun wildly and hurtled toward Sapphira.
She dove for a ditch next to the road. Clutching Excalibur, Bonnie leaped and flew toward her. The helicopter skidded upright along the highway. It then flipped forward, bent the propeller as it cartwheeled, and rolled upright again.
The pilots leaped out, handguns drawn, and stalked toward Sapphira. Bonnie landed between the pilots and Sapphira and summoned Excalibur’s beam. She swiped it across the men, but their dark uniforms merely glowed.
One of the men scowled. “I don’t care what the boss says. The dragon girl tried to kill us. Let’s take her down.”
The moment they aimed their guns, Bonnie lunged and sliced the blade across their wrists. Their gun hands dropped to the road. The men crumpled in place, writhing and moaning as they clutched their bleeding stumps.
Bonnie searched the sky. The Learjet zoomed toward her. As it approached at a low altitude, its landing gear descended. The engine coughed and sputtered. Seconds later, the jet dropped and landed hard. The tires popped. Sparks flew. Metallic squeals pierced the air until the jet stopped about a half mile away.
When Billy and Walter jumped out, Bonnie exhaled. Good. They made it. She used the tip of the sword to lift the visors on the chopper pilots’ helmets. As with Oscar and the Enforcer, sores covered the skin around their eyes.
“Who sent you here?” Bonnie demanded. “Who is your commanding officer?”
“You gotta be kidding me!” one pilot groaned as he pressed his stub against his chest. “Just kill us and get it over with!”
Lying on his back, the other pilot breathed in heavy gasps. “We get our orders … from Washington. … We don’t know his name. … We do what … we’re told because … they offered us … a cure for the disease.”
“Are any more of you coming?” Bonnie asked.
He closed his eyes tightly and nodded.
“How many?”
“Don’t tell her!” the first pilot shouted. “She cut your hand off, you idiot!”
The second pilot turned to his side and curled into a fetal position. “Too many.” He then closed his eyes and moved no more.
The first pilot propped himself with his good arm and sneered. “I know who you are, dragon girl! You’re the cause of all the curses—the nuke, the fallout, and the disease. My wife is dying because of you and your merciful God, and now she’ll die alone.” He spat at Bonnie’s shoes. “Well, curse you, you winged freak. And curse your God, too. If we have to kill a million children to get the job done, we will.”
“Get the job done?” Bonnie set the tip of the blade at his throat. “Take one more breath and tell me. Why the children? What have they done that deserves death?”
“We all deserve death.” The pilot lunged past the blade and dove for his gun. Just as Bonnie raised the sword to strike, he set the barrel to his own head, his finger on the trigger.
Bonnie averted her eyes. A shot rang out, and a thud followed. She peeked at the two pilots. They lay motionless in pools of blood.
Her feet feeling like dead weights, she hurried to the ditch where Sapphira had leaped. She sat upright at the bottom, shaking her head as if trying to recover from a daze.
Bonnie extended a hand. “Think you can get up?”
“Probably.” Sapphira grasped Bonnie’s hand and pulled to her feet. “I hit my head but not really that hard, so it shouldn’t hurt this much. I think age is catching up with me.”
“Well, you still look like a teenager to me.” Bonnie brushed off the back of Sapphira’s tunic. After living for multiple millennia, maybe the inside of her body really did feel all of those years. But since she ate fruit from the tree of life, supposedly she couldn’t die a natural death. For some people, that might feel like a curse. “Are you all right now?”
“A little better.” Sapphira looked up, her eyes not quite as sparkling blue as usual. “I’m going to tell Elam what happened. I’ll see you at the stadium.” She walked away, a slight limp in her gait.
“I could fly you there.”
“I can manage. Thanks anyway.” Sapphira continued walking, her head low.
Bonnie kept her stare on the great Oracle of Fire. Something was wrong. Maybe the age issue was real. Who else but Elam could relate to thousands of years of life, much of it locked in solitary confinement under miles of stone.
A moment later, Billy and Walter arrived. “We ran out of fuel.” Billy glanced at the dead pilots. “Looks like you got the job done.”
“Please don’t sa
y it that way.” Bonnie pushed Excalibur into his hand. “That wasn’t a job I wanted.”
He pulled her close and wrapped her in a tight embrace. After a few seconds of silence, he whispered, “You’re an amazing woman. Do you know that?”
“Well …” She nestled into his chest. Somehow the odor of dirt and sweat brought comfort. It meant he was close. “Keep telling me. After what one of the pilots said, I need a confidence boost.”
“Really?” He rubbed her back. “What did he say?”
“They’re killing children. Lots of them. And he called it ‘getting the job done.’” Bonnie pulled back and looked into his eyes. “I asked him why, but he wouldn’t give me an answer that made any sense, just that everyone deserves to die and the curses are all my fault. Then he shot himself.”
Walter winced. “That must’ve been hard to handle.”
Billy took Bonnie’s hand. “Let’s talk on the way to the stadium.”
As they walked, Walter piped up again. “I saw the sores on the chopper pilots. They had the disease. Billy told me about it. You know, finding Oscar dead.”
Bonnie looked back, but the pilots were too far away now for their sores to be in view. “I’m wondering if Carly has it. Her sores look similar.”
“If so,” Walter said, “there’s probably no cure.”
“I think there’s a cure. I’ll have to watch for a chance to talk to Carly about faith.” Bonnie gazed at the city skyline. “I wonder what percentage of the population it’s affecting.”
“I’ll bet the children don’t have it,” Billy said. “Why else would anyone try to kill them? If the kids had the disease, no one would bother. They’d die anyway.”
Bonnie repeated the awful words in her mind. To get the job done. “Killing children is a goal. But why?”
Walter shrugged. “Some kind of sick, twisted idea that we’re all supposed to die because we’re evil? Some kind of retribution madness?”
Billy laid a hand on his stomach. “I sense danger.”
“I smell danger.” Walter inhaled through his nose. “Garlic. Just like what we smelled when the nuke blew up.”
“The missile payload. I’ll bet the first missile knocked out the dragons. Otherwise Elam would’ve sent them to help us.”
“And more soldiers are coming,” Bonnie said. “Probably a lot. One of the pilots told me.”
“No surprise.” Billy looked skyward. “Arramos knows where we are now, and he knows where the portal is, so he’s bound to send muscle this way.”
Walter kicked a pebble. “That was just one helicopter, and now we don’t have a jet. Imagine what it will be like if they send an armada.”
Billy heaved a sigh. “So we regroup, put our heads together, and figure out how to open the portal.”
“That’s the big puzzle,” Walter said. “We’d be long gone in Second Eden if we could’ve opened it. We weren’t going to wait for you. Sapphira was planning to keep watching through the portal till you got here.”
“I don’t blame you for that.” Billy released Bonnie’s hand. “Let’s kick it in gear. We have to warn the others.”
They accelerated to a jog. While Billy limped, Bonnie stayed close to his side, ready to help if necessary. If he wanted a ride, he would ask. She touched Walter’s shoulder. “Did you see that we brought your parents?”
“I did. Thanks.” Walter gave her a glance. “I can’t remember the date, but Shelly and Mark were supposed to visit. This week, I think. Did they come?”
“Um …” A vision of Shelly’s and Mark’s dead bodies invaded, clamping her throat shut. Billy didn’t tell him. “I … ah …”
Walter stopped. When Billy and Bonnie stopped as well, Walter grasped her elbow. “Just tell me … Dead or alive?”
“Shelly’s dead, Walter.” She curled her arm around his. “So is Mark. An Enforcer shot them both. No word on her husband or other son.”
His lips tightened. “Okay.” He cleared his throat and let out a soft laugh that sounded like a stifled sob. “You know … I … well … it’s not so bad. I mean, it looks like this world is about to blow up, so they’ll skip the torture and go straight to Heaven, right?”
“Right.” Bonnie tightened her grip on his arm. “Heaven is better than you can imagine. It’s perfect.”
“I’m sure it is.” He pulled away and took off in a trot, calling back, “I’d better talk to my parents.”
As they watched Walter rush across the parking lot, Billy took Bonnie’s hand and whispered, “Poor Walter. He really got close to Shelly after … you know.”
“The incident with Morgan.”
“Yeah.” Billy used a thumb to brush a tear from each eye. “I wanted to tell him I know how it feels to lose someone you love, but it sounded pretty lame. So …” He shrugged. “You know.”
“Not lame. Painful.” Bonnie laid a hand over his heart. “You didn’t want to reopen your own wounds.”
“Yeah. Something like that.”
“Billy …” She intertwined their fingers. “I think Matt made it to Abaddon’s Lair with Lauren’s body. I had another dream like I prayed for. I didn’t want to tell you, because I wasn’t sure. Actually, I’m still not sure. But now … well … I thought you’d like to know. Maybe it’ll help you to share that hope with me.”
“We’ll hope together.” Billy lifted her hand and kissed her fingers. “After all we’ve been through, I learned one lesson that I’ll never forget. There’s always a light, no matter how dark it gets.”
CHAPTER 10
BACK FROM THE DEAD
Lauren walked in a dense fog. Moonlight cut through the mist just enough to allow slow, cautious steps. A humanlike statue appeared out of nowhere. She stopped and reached to touch its vague, masculine face, but her hand passed through. She blinked. How could that be? A phantom statue?
Memories flowed in—the bloody pool turned clear, Tamiel’s emergence from the water, the etched names on the floor, and Sir Barlow’s tumble into the sanctum. How had she transported from the realm of the blood pool to this foggy place?
She looked back. A copy of herself lay sleeping on the floor near the glowing yoke. Might she be dreaming?
“You seem perplexed.”
Lauren spun. The voice was light and feminine, unexpected from a masculine-looking statue. She set a hand close to its face. “Did you say that?”
A dark-skinned woman stepped out from behind the statue. “I did.” Long black hair ran from the top of her girlish head, along her arms, and down to her knees. Wearing a skin-tight body suit that showed off womanly curves, she crossed four arms over her chest, one pair on top of the other. “As I said, you seem perplexed.”
Lauren looked at the girl’s chest. A shallow hole had been gouged in her sternum, exposed by her V-neck garment. “Are you Jade?”
She nodded.
“I found your gem.” Lauren reached into her pants pocket, withdrew the green stone, and extended it.
“You cannot give it to me, because what you hold is not real. You are dreaming, so you and everything on your person is a phantasm.” Jade began walking around Lauren, keeping her stare fixed as she orbited. “Yet, since you are a dream oracle, your mind has manifested a body as you walk in a realm of prophetic mystery.”
Rotating to watch the strange woman, Lauren slid the gem into her pocket. The slick feel of the stone and the texture of her pants certainly felt real. “So are you a phantasm?”
“I am the angel of the sanctum, and I am real. Although my body has perished, I am able to enter this realm in a spiritual state that resembles my former appearance.” When she completed the orbit, she returned to the statue and stroked its head as if petting a dog. “This statue is also real. It exists as the only remnant from Abaddon’s Lair. It contains a soul that has not yet been resurrected, and with the exception of the souls already growing in Second Eden’s garden, it will be the last one to resurrect until you find the life reservo
ir.”
“Whose soul is in there?”
“That mystery remains unsolved.” Jade waved a hand toward Lauren’s sleeping body. “Your work in this realm has loosed the shackles of the soul who dwells in this stony abode. You have also released the sacrificial energy of many martyrs, and that energy has flowed into the life reservoir.”
Lauren pointed at her. “Did you leave those portals in the sanctum open? Is it a puzzle of some sort?”
“I did open the portals, but it is not really a puzzle. You see, a clever villain might be able to solve even the most complex puzzle I could design, so I made it more of a journey that no villain is able to complete.” Jade smiled. “And to answer the next question you will want to ask, no, I will not tell you what to do now. Part of the preparation is the act of seeking.”
Lauren gave her a tight-lipped nod. “I think I understand.”
“Do you?” Jade touched the top of the statue’s head with all four hands and ran them down its body on the sides, front, and back. As her hands descended, the statue quivered, and grit fell from the surface. When her hands reached the floor, the statue lifted its legs in turn and stretched out its arms as if testing them. With so much weight on its limbs, every movement seemed to be in slow motion.
Jade stepped between Lauren and the statue and laid two hands on each of them. “I brought the statue here for two reasons. One, to show you, Lauren, the power you have as a dream oracle. You already know that you are able to learn truth from your dreams, but you are also able to communicate with those who are in this realm. Two, to give the resurrected soul instructions regarding a sacred task.”
Jade spoke directly to the statue. “You must find Lauren’s brother, Matt Bannister, and Listener. I know only that they are in Second Eden, so you will have to search. Let wisdom guide you. I do not yet know what help you will be able to bring, because many decisions are yet to be made that can alter the course of events.”
The statue’s head melted, sending dense rivulets running down its body. As the melting continued from the shoulders to the arms, mist rose from the hole at the top of the torso and streamed away. Soon, the statue was gone, and the pool of molten liquid on the ground vanished.