The Rise of the Fallen (The Angelic Wars Book 2) (35 page)

She nodded. “Yeah,
I'm beat.” She walked over and patted Chris' shoulder. “Good
to see you too. We're a bit low on food and rest, so if you don't
mind, we'll let the boss bring you up to speed.”

“
Um, yeah sure,”
Chris said. He thought Bea was right. Both she and George had blue
shadows under their eyes and they looked like they'd both lost some
weight. And their clothes were covered with stains and torn in
several places. “Go ahead. I'm just glad you're back and in one
piece.”

She smiled and headed for
the exit. As George followed her, he turned back, gave Chris a wink
and said, “I hope you like our present. It's a one of a kind
special.” He laughed to himself, smiled at Chris again and
left.

“
What's he talking
about?” Chris asked as he turned to the judge. The man looked
amused as he watched the retreating backs of the two staff members.

“
Oh, that's just
George. Scratch that rough surface and you'll discover a rather deep
sense of humor. Balances out his aggressiveness, I suppose.”

The judge motioned for
Chris to follow him and he led them to the two chairs that Bea and
George had been using.

“
Have a seat and
I'll explain what's been happening,” he said as he sat down.

Chris took the other chair
and then leaned forward eagerly.

“
So what happened to
them at the safe-house?” he asked immediately.

“
Don't waste any
time, do you?” the judge asked with some humor. “Good.
Things are heating up, as you know, and I think we just pulled a fast
one on our enemies. And they will never even know we did it.”

Chris was mystified. Judge
Hawkes sounded almost smug, something that Chris had never seen in
him before. He hoped it was a good sign.

“
So..?” Chris
said suggestively.

“
So.” The
judge sat back and crossed his legs, His eyes wandered vaguely over
the many artifacts that decorated the room. “When Beatrice and
George got back to Luxembourg, making sure that they weren't
followed, of course, they scouted the house again. Once they were
sure that they could enter covertly, they waited until nightfall and
broke in through the back.” He sighed. “There was
evidence of a terrible battle. Broken furniture, blood stains...
Well, you get the idea, I'm sure. The place had been ransacked. I
suppose the enemy was looking for records, information on the
organization, what have you. Of course, they found nothing.”

Chris settled more deeply
into his chair. The black leather was soft and quite comfortable.
“Why not?” he asked.

“
Because we don't
keep paper records any longer. All of the Angelic Dominion's business
is done online, using cloud technology. It is deeply encrypted and
quite impenetrable. They may have found a few grocery lists or
laundry tags but that's about it.” The judge smiled at his own
joke and Chris laughed lightly.

“
So that was it?”
he asked, feeling a little disappointed. “A risky chance like
that just to confirm what we already guessed?”

“
Patience,
Christopher,” the judge said and shook a finger at him. “One
thing at a time. What our enemies apparently didn't realize, perhaps
because the Hawkes Nest was set up differently, was that the
safe-house in Luxembourg also has a vault, quite similar to this one
actually. The difference is, their vault is hidden.”

Chris sat up straighter.
“Hidden? Really?” He frowned. “Why?”

“
One of my
ancestors, the son of the founder of the organization actually, was
the person who established the safe-house in that city. He was a
trifle, let us say, paranoid when it came to security. He had had a
run in with agents of the Fallen even then, and decided to make the
house even more secure than the Nest was. So he built a dummy vault,
to trick our enemies if they ever breached the walls, and beneath it
constructed the real vault.”

Judge Hawkes continued to
smile complacently and Chris resisted the urge to try to hurry him in
his telling of the story. Instead, he waited impatiently,
unconsciously drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair. The judge
raised an eyebrow as he looked at Chris' busy fingers and the teen
stopped with a blush.

“
As I was saying,
the vault is hidden in Luxembourg and was still locked down and
secure when our people finally reached it. Both of them have been
valued members of my staff long enough that I entrusted them with the
codes to enter that vault.” And now the judge was smiling
widely. “And they found survivors,” he finished with a
flourish.

Chris gaped at him in
surprise. “Survivors? Whoa, that's fantastic!”

“
It is indeed. The
three young Angelics, and two staff members that had been sent into
the vault to guard them, were locked in there safe and sound. The
vault has its own ventilation system, of course. They were hungry and
frightened but essentially unharmed.”

The judge closed his eyes
for a moment and rubbed them. He looks really tired, Chris thought
with a trace of worry.

“
One of the reasons
that Beatrice and George took some time returning was that they
needed to sneak them all out of the city without our enemies
realizing that they had been tricked, And as far as we know, that was
the case. All five of them are in the medical wing now, as a
precaution, but they appear to be none the worse for wear.”

With an audible sigh of
relief, Chris slumped back into his chair, feeling a glow of
happiness that he hadn't felt for quite a while.

“
That is great news,
sir,” he told the judge. Then something occurred to him. “Why
did George call that a one of a kind present for me? Not that it
isn't great,” he added hastily.

“
Yes, it is a
wonderful present for all of us,” the judge agreed. “But
that isn't what George was talking about.”

The man got to his feet
and motioned for Chris to follow him.

The two of them crossed
the room to stand in front of a massive chest that reminded Chris of
the sort of treasure chest that he imagined pirates would have used.

“
Like Valiant's
vault here, that other vault held many artifacts that the Dominion
had collected over the past two centuries or so. Even I wasn't sure
exactly what they had stored there. The most valuable and oldest of
these items were brought back along with the five survivors. And one
of these remarkable pieces caught my eye.”

The judge set his hands on
the top of the chest and fixed Chris with a penetrating look.

“
Is Sariel with you
at the moment?” he asked almost casually.

Chris felt inside himself.
Sariel? You there?

A moment of blankness and
then he felt the archangel's warmth fill his mind.

I am, my friend. What
is happening?

No idea. The judge
wanted you here for some reason.

Really?
Sariel sounded intrigued.
Well, let us see
what he wants.

“
He's here, sir,”
Chris told the man, who nodded his thanks.

“
Good. Then perhaps
he can help us identify...this.”

The judge lifted the heavy
lid of the chest slowly with a grunt. The hinges squealed, sounding
like a shriek of car brakes in the enclosed area, and the lid slammed
back against the wall.

Chris stepped forward and
peered into the open chest with wide eyes.

Inside there were heaps of
small articles, gold chains, gleaming medallions and holy symbols
made of gold and silver. There was a large, gem-encrusted cross that
looked incredibly old to Chris. It was all remarkable looking to him,
but it was the object resting on top of all of these others that drew
his undivided attention. He actually heard Sariel gasp within his
mind.

“
Oh...” Chris'
voice trailed off for a moment. He caught his breath. “Judge,
is that what I think it is?”

The man didn't try to
touch the object. “It may be, Christopher. Pick it up and see.
I wasn't sure, so I wanted Sariel here with us to help identify it.”

Chris reached into the
chest with trembling fingers and carefully picked up the long piece
of metal. Its edges were as keen and sharp as a scalpel and both ends
were jagged where they had been broken off. It was part of a sword
blade.

Sariel, is it..?

A sense of triumph mingled
with a heart-wrenching sadness threatened to overwhelm Chris;
feelings passed on to him from Sariel, and it took a moment for the
archangel to answer him.

Yes, it is,
the voice echoed in his head finally.
The
second piece of my sword. Oh, my Father. You are truly guiding our
steps in this.

Chris reached into his
pocket and worked the hilt free from where he always carried it now.
He pulled it out with one hand while balancing the heavy piece of
blade in his palm in the other. He was careful not to touch those
edges.

He stared at both pieces
and tilted his head, narrowing his eyes as he tried to figure out
which end of the blade matched the bits of metal that stuck out at
the bottom of the hilt.

Chris looked from the hilt
to the blade and back again, a bit puzzled. The judge remained
silent, watching closely.

“
Oh, now I see,”
Chris said and almost laughed. He turned the hilt over and moved the
blade slightly so that one end faced the now right-side up hilt.

What do I do now?

Like to like, Chris.
Just bring them together and let us see what happens.

Carefully, slowly, Chris
moved the hilt and the blade toward each other. When the distance
between the two objects closed to within a few inches, both pieces
began to vibrate in his hands. A hum, metallic and piercing, filled
the air.

It sounds like they're
singing to each other, Chris thought in wonder. Or maybe just saying
hello. Two old friends who haven't seen each other since the creation
of the world.

Along with the hum, a
smell of metal, clean and sharp, filled his nostrils and he fought a
sudden urge to sneeze.

He felt like the blade and
hilt would leap from his hands to connect together, but Chris was
able to bring the two vibrating pieces of metal into contact just
before there was a room-shaking clang, like someone slamming a giant
hammer down on to an anvil, and a flash of silver light blinded him
for a moment.

“
Ouch!” he
gasped and shook his head. His eyes were running with water and he
blinked hard several times to clear them. “That frigging hurt.
Thanks for the heads-up, Sariel.”

Judge Hawkes grinned at
Chris. “That was unexpected. Are you all right?”

Chris shook his head to
clear it. His ears were still throbbing. He finally looked down at
the pieces in his hands. And stared at them in wonder.

At it, he told himself.
There was only a single piece now.

Chris was holding a sword.
Well, actually half a sword, he amended. He lifted the hilt that he
was holding in his right hand and the blade, still jagged at one end
where the final piece had snapped off, moved with it.

It shone with a ghostly
light and the strength that Chris always felt when he held the blade
was magnified. He felt...strong. For the first time in his life, he
felt really strong. Strong enough to defend himself, strong enough to
fight. It was almost intoxicating.

Easy, my friend,
Sariel's calm, and faintly amused voice said.
May
I speak to the judge please?

Sure thing,
Chris
answered, still mesmerized by the sword.

He tore his eyes away from
it and looked at Judge Hawkes.

“
I wanted to thank
you for this,” the echoing, powerful voice of the archangel
said to the judge. The man's eyes widened. “You cannot know how
much this one act has encouraged me, has encouraged us.” Sariel
hesitated and glanced down at the sword again.

“
I can feel my
powers increasing even now as I hold the sword.” He looked back
at the judge. “Even though they are incomplete without the
remaining piece, I am now closer to being able to wield the power
that I was born with. Thank you, Judge Hawkes. Both from myself and
from Chris. You have accomplished a great deed this day.”

The judge began to answer
and then stopped to clear his throat.

“
I appreciate that,
Sariel. And Christopher,” he added with a smile. “But it
was a team effort. Beatrice and George deserve more praise than I do.
I am honestly baffled by the fact that my ancestor found the blade
and stored it away in a vault without even documenting it. I have
gone through every list of artifacts from every storage facility we
have, and I've never seen a listing for a sword blade before.”
He gave a little shrug. “I simply cannot explain the
oversight.”

“
Do not try, Judge
Hawkes. I feel divine intervention was the cause in this case.”
The judge looked skeptical and Sariel laughed. “Take it on
faith, my friend. While my Father will not take a direct hand in this
conflict, I don't believe that a little nudge from Him from time to
time is out of the question.”