Armageddon?? (27 page)

Randi
left and went down to the corridor. Outside the conference room his team was
using as a laboratory, four armed Marines were on guard. That was new but when
Randi went inside, he could see why. The room was stacked with packages wrapped
in green plastic. Small packages, rectangular in shape, about two pounds each
Randi guessed. He had a sudden premonition that had nothing whatsoever to do
with pseudo-science that smoking in this room would be a very bad idea. There
was other equipment around, boxes, odd shapes and two vicious looking rifles.

“Sir,
General Schatten will be with us immediately Sir.” Randi nodded. In the
background, he could hear music playing, Sheryl Crowe’s voice sounding
incongruous amongst the electronics, weapons and piles of high explosive.

These,
in the days when Heaven is failing. The days when earths foundations fled They
follow their military calling And now they fight to save our dead

And
now they fight to save our dead.

Their
shoulders hold the sky suspended They stand and earth’s foundations hold Whom
God abandoned these defended And they saved the sum of things today.

And
they saved the sum of things today.

“I
hope you don’t mind Sir.” kitten was stretched out on a couch, her boyfriend
sitting beside her. “Some music helps me relax.

“No
problem kitten. You know what’s going to happen here?” kitten shook her head.

“This
room is shielded against electromagnetic radiation so anything we pick up is
you linking to hell.” The scientist spoke carefully. When he’d got his PhD (a
highly classified one as it happened, in electromagnetic propagation which was
a euphemism for some of the more spectacular aspects of electronic warfare),
he’d never envisaged working on anything like this. “We’re running those
signals through a massive amplifier and blasting them out. According to our
information, we push enough power into the transmission and the visions you can
experience will be converted to a real portal that we can step though into hell
itself. And step out of to get back here.”

He
was interrupted by the military members of the group snapping to attention.
General Schatten had entered with an Army Major in tow. He returned the salutes
and looked around at the room with satisfaction. “I see the Czechs came through
with the Semtex then. This is Major Warhol, he’ll be training the A-teams
who’ll be organizing the insurgency in Hell. Major, this is the team trying to
get through for your people.”

“Thank
you general.” The expression on Warhol’s face was one of stunned disbelief. “If
I may summarize my mission, I and my people are going to use an
inter-dimensional rift created by a masochistic paranoid schizophrenic
transsexual acting on information received from a turncoat succubus to invade
Hell, start an insurgency with the aim of destabilizing the whole set-up there,
subverting the rule of Satan and eventually organizing an internal coup to
overthrow him.”

“That’s
it in a nutshell Major.” Schatten’s voice was amused by the horrified
expression on the Major’s countenance.

“When
I selected Special Forces at the ‘Point, they told me there would be days like
this.”

“What
did they recommend Major?”

“Cyanide
Sir.’ A laugh ran around the room.

“People,
we’re ready to get started.” The scientist was trying desperately to get back
into control. “Once the portal is open, we don’t know how long we can keep it
open so we have to move fast. General?”

“Yeah,
when it opens, everybody start throwing stuff through as fast as you can. Just
throw it through, leave the people the other side to catch and store it. One
question Bob, why can’t we keep the portal open? The baldricks don’t seem to
have any trouble.”

“Imagine
it like this General, a very fast flowing stream with a pair of old saloon
doors, the kind that swing both ways in it. The baldricks upstream, us
downstream. They can push the doors open easily enough but to close them they
have to pull the doors against the flow. To open them we have to push against
the flow but that same flow will be constantly trying to push them shut again.
kitten, I think there’s going to an incredible strain on you once the portal
opens, even with electronic boost, you’re fighting forces we have no way of
understanding. Don’t worry about how long you can hold on for, just do the best
you can. If you can give any warning when you’re going to lose it, please try
but if you can’t, don’t worry. Remember, you’re a unique resource at this time,
you’re worth more than pretty much anything else we have.” kitten nodded.
“Right people, let’s get going.”

Chapter
Twenty

On
the Shore of the Styx, Fifth Ring, Hell

The
six members of Recon Team Tango-one-five crouched behind a large rock
outcropping beside high walls that separated the Sixth Ring from the Fifth. On
the other side of the rocks was the gate, no less than fifty feet high, and
probably much higher. It was open, and a steady stream of Baldricks was pouring
out of the Sixth Ring, and setting off across the Fifth to where a distant set
of gates offered access to the Fourth Ring. . Kim looked over to McInery and
hissed, “What’s your count, Mac?”

“I’m
at five thousand two hundred twenty, ell-tee. Twenty-nine. Thirty-eight. …”

“Aye.
Forty-seven now. How many command units?”

Gerald
“Bubbles” Tarrant chimed in. “That’s a little more than seven battalion-sized
units, and we’ve seen eight big guys on huge-ass rhinolobsters. I think they’re
battalion commanders, ell-tee”

Kim
nodded. That made sense. And they were still pouring out from the city in ranks
of nine abreast, with no end in sight. It was like being caught at a crossing
by a two hundred car train … her gaze softened as she started to think about
the wide skies and waving grain of her Midwestern ho—

She
slapped herself softly. No thoughts of home now; she was in hell, and she had a
job to do. Fifty-seven sixty, fifty-seven sixty-nine – “Mac? How many?”

“Five
thousand seven hundred seventy eight and counting, ell tee.”

“Bubbles?”

“Here
comes the ninth big rhinolobster; this’ll be nine battalions of 81
nine-baldrick platoons.”

They
kept counting for another couple of minutes, and then there were no more
baldricks. As the tramping feet died off into the mists of the Styx, Kim looked
over at McInery. “You have 6,666 baldricks, including the command groups?”

“Aye,
ell-tee. Right in line with what Bubbles has got.”

“Damn.
That’s a whole brigade.”

There
was silence for a minute, then Bubbles asked, “So, ell-tee, what are we doing
now?”

“Now,
we move away from the city, stay in the region, and find a relatively safe
place to get some rest and wait for more contact.”

“Aye,
sir.” They darted one-by-one from boulder to boulder, heading away from the
city across the coffin-dotted plain. Around them, the groans and cries of the
damned rose into a haunting chorus as the unquenchable flames – What powers
them? wondered Kim idly for a moment before pulling herself back to the present
– balanced by the supernatural healing powers of their new bodies.

Nearly
an hour later, they were again at the shore of the Styx. The soft mud oozing
gently through their toes belied the roar of the waterfall ahead, and the thick
pea-soup fog was getting heavier as it mingled with the mist thrown up by the
falling water. There was a horrible stench in the air, and the mist tasted of
sulfur.

Kim
led Tango-one-five toward the cliff. The mud thinned at last and gave way to
rock; the land rose into a jagged, twisted badland around the river basin as
the river gained speed heading toward the gorge. They clambered over the slick
rocks and around monolithic boulders, until Kim stopped.

They
were standing on a low peak with a commanding view of the surrounding terrain,
at least as far as the mist let them see. Ahead of them, the broken terrain
dived down into dimness; to the right, the Styx plunged down the gorge; to the
left, the cliff edge stretched off into the mist, with a subtle curve that just
evaded the eye; and behind them, the badlands stretched for what must have been
several miles. They were surrounded by a ring of low, jagged boulders.

Kim
nodded. “Here is where we make the base of operations. We’re staying here until
command contacts – ” Her eyes defocused, and she relaxed visibly.

McInery
was next to her, and grabbed her muddy shoulder. “Ell-tee? Ell-tee??”

She
tensed up again with a start. “That was the brass in Washington. They’re going
to try to get us some equipment.”

Lieutenant
Kim? It was kitten again.

Kim
tried her best not to fade out and lose the contact. Yes? “Mac, I’m still
talking to them. Hold on a second.”

General
Schatten is wondering if where you are is a safe place right now?

Yes,
we’re safe enough.

Okay,
good. We’re going to try an experiment here. If it works, I’ll see you in a
moment. Or something will be happening.” Kim felt a giggle in kitten’s voice.
Nobody is quite sure what.

Randi
Institute of Pneumatology, the Pentagon, Arlington, VA

“I’m
through Sirs.” kitten spoke with an unaccustomed level of authority in her
voice. “Lieutenant Kim says they are in a safe place right now.”

The
attending scientist nodded. “Are you ready?”

Taking
a deep breath and closing her eyes tightly, kitten nodded.

“We
have kitten’s signal recorded and digitalized?” The question was a rhetorical
one only. Nevertheless, one of the electronic techs checked the files in the
signals analysis computer.

“Confirmed,
we have it. Like nothing we’ve ever seen before but we do have it.”

From
his pocket, the scientist pulled what looked like a TV remote and hit a couple
of buttons. Across the room, the digitalized version of kitten’s bio-electrical
signal was being fed into an amplifying system that had been modified from a
deception jammer. The result as the technologists started to increase the
output power was immediate. kitten began to shake visibly, rattling the chair
she was lounged on. The tendons in her neck were standing out in strain. Her
boyfriend held her tightly, and was about to say something when everyone in the
room jumped. A black ellipse was staring to form in the room. It was hard to
say where it was, it seemed to be at once parallel with the floor and
perpendicular to it. It was also hard to say what it was, it seemed black and
almost infinitely absorptive yet it also glared and irritated the eyes. A
shining shadow didn’t make sense yet that was what they had created.

“What
is that?”

“Must
be a projection of something our senses can’t cope with so they’re doing the best
they can.”

“Hurry
up can’t you?” kitten’s boyfriend almost snarled out the words. “Can’t you see
how much you’re hurting her?”

Still
not quite believing his eyes, Randi picked up the paper airplane he’d brought
and threw it; it traveled through the portal and vanished. A split second later
it came back out, stained and smelling of sulfur.

General
Schatten didn’t hesitate. He grabbed a Barrett M107 rifle from the pile of
military shiny toys, a bag of electronic equipment, then tossed a “Warhol, grab
some more and follow me” over his shoulder before stepping into the shadowy
circle and vanishing.

On
the Shore of the Styx, Fifth Ring, Hell

Kim
suddenly felt awake again, but the daydream wasn’t gone. In fact, it seemed to
be superimposed on her vision. She passed a dirty hand over her eyes and
squinted, trying to get it to go away; her mind was playing tricks on her, she
got the sense that something was forcing its way through to her. Then, a black
ellipse started to form, one that defied easy description. “Hold on still,
guys. I think I’m still hallucinating.”

“You
too?” asked Bubbles, who was blinking rapidly.

Kim
spun around and looked at her surroundings. All normal, and she was feeling
fine. Then she turned back again, and there was the tunnel. “You guys see it
too?”

“Yes,”
said the others at once. As they did so, a paper dart flew through the ellipse
and hit Kim on the forehead before fluttering to the ground. Perplexed, she
stooped and picked it up: a paper airplane? Then the anvil dropped and she
threw it back through the ellipse. After a few seconds, a man stepped through,
an M107 Barrett over one shoulder, a large bag in one hand. Kim and her
companions snapped to attention.

“Lieutenant,
you’re out of uniform.” General Schatten looked around, a foul, stinking swamp
covered with a yellowish mist that stunk of sulfur and fouler things. He was
standing on a rocky outcrop amid an atmosphere of desolation and misery that
told him, more clearly than anything else could, that he was truly in hell.

“Sorry
Sir, that joke was old the first time I heard it. Anyway, this is the uniform
of the day around here. Skin and mud.”