Express Magnum revolver. Malloy was a cop partly because he liked it and partly because it had annoyed his parents who believed that their money should insulate their only child from such mundane lifestyles. When they had finally died in an auto wreck, he had become a very wealthy cop and had invested USD17,000 in an example of what was truly the most powerful handgun ever made. ‘Malloy’s Cannon’ was a legend in his local police station and had caused him to be at the top of the “must call” list if there had been a Baldrick berserker raid. Sadly, in Malloy’s eyes at least, the opportunity to fire the piece had never emerged.
“Do you want a hand carrying that thing?” Reed’s question was a mixture of envy and genuine curiosity. A handgun that weighed just under 14 pounds was quite a load after all. And it made his. 500 Smith and Wesson look positively feeble.
“Just watch those two.” Malloy walked up to where the two angels were stretched across one of the Interstate 270 carriageways. For a moment, he was stopped by the sheer beauty of the one who was standing. Then his training kicked back in “Freeze, you are under arrest.”
I-270/Old Georgetown Road interchange, Bethesda, Maryland
Lemuel-Lan looked at the two humans in blue walking towards him. They’d emerged from a car that had strange red-and-blue flashing lights on its roof, lights that reminded Lemuel of some of the shows in Michael’s nightclub. That connection made him blink, the truth was that the rapid changes had left him bewildered. He remembered taking Maion through the portal to Earth that he and Michael-Lan had generated. They had emerged in mid-air and had fallen towards the ground below that seemed all too close and solid. He’d beaten his wings with all the strength he could muster and filled his flight sacs to bursting point in an effort to break the fall, yet Maion had still screamed with pain and passed out when they struck the road.
Now, these two humans were facing him. It occurred to him that their very presence meant that the aircraft overhead weren’t going to rain destruction down upon them but they both had drawn guns and seemed very determined. And hostile, Lemuel reminded himself of that. These are not the meek and docile servants I knew in Heaven. These are the killers who destroyed The Eternal Enemy’s Army with contemptuous ease, stormed his fortress, killed him and installed their own puppet in power. And now they will do the same thing to Heaven and that is the only way to save us from a madman.
Lemuel moved to place himself between the humans and Maion’s gravely-injured body. “Don’t kill us I beg you. Maion is terribly injured, she needs your help.” As if in answer, there was a thunderous crash and a brilliant flash of lightning.
Police Cruiser Adam One-Two, I-270, Bethesda.
“I said freeze sucker.” The standing angel had tried to step sideways and Malloy decided it was time to fire a warning shot. For the first time since he had bought the piece, he squeezed the trigger on the Pfeifer-Zeliska.
It took a second for Reed to clear the after-images from his eyes and shake the ringing noises out of his ears. When he had managed it, he looked around for his partner. Malloy was laying flat on his back on the ground, staring up at the F-22s circling overhead. Behind the two angels, little bits of concrete were still falling off the flyover where the. 600 bullet had plowed into the cement. “Too much gun?” Reed asked sympathetically.
Malloy climbed to his feet, also trying to shake the ringing noises from his ears. His hat had gone somewhere backwards and there was a red gash in his forehead where the recoiling pistol had hit him. “Nahh, just right,” he mumbled. Then, in a stronger voice he addressed the lead angel. “When I say freeze you don’t move. Not a muscle, you understand? Now kneel down and put your hands behind your head. Jim, call dispatch, tell them we have two angels in custody. You, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in athe court of law. You have the right to talk to a lawyer and have him present with you while you are being questioned. If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer one will be appointed to represent you before any questioning if you wish one. Do you understand each of these rights I have explained to you?” Lemuel nodded. “What’s your name?”
“I am Lemuel-Lan-Michael. This is my mate, Maion-Lan-Lemuel-Lan-Michael. Please, you must help her. Just look what Yahweh did to her. Michael says humans are her only hope.”
“You get those names Jim? What does dispatch say?”
“I think they’re speechless. Oh, the Army is coming.”
“Please help her.” Lemuel was pleading, tears rolling from his eyes.
Malloy nodded and looked at the angel on the ground. She was indeed female and was as beautiful as Lemuel was handsome. In fact, she was just about the most beautiful thing Malloy had ever seen. Or would have been if she hadn’t been beaten so badly. “You say Yahweh did this?” He couldn’t believe it.
“It was done on his orders. Because a female he smiled on was jealous of her.”
“Damn. Jim, get back to dispatch. Tell them we’ll need some sort of transporter and a medical team. We’ve got an emergency here.”
“That’s all right Officer, we’ll handle it from here.” An Army Colonel had appeared at the scene. “This is ours now.”
“Sucks to be you, Sir. We got here first, this is a Prince George County PD collar. And these are our prisoners.”
Colonel Paschal sighed. He was beginning to see why Prince George County PD had the reputation it did. “And you are, officer?”
” Peter J. Malloy, Badge number 744, service number 10743.”
“Well, Peter J Mallow, badge number 744, this area is under Federal jurisdiction and these are foreign military personnel engaged in hostile activities against the United States and, by the way, the human race.”
“Hosile activities?” Malloy’s voice was openly derisive. His family had been big on State’s rights and the iniquities of the Federal Government. “Look at them. Lemuel there has been as good as gold. I’ve had more trouble busting little old ladies. And his mate is so badly smashed up, she needs emergency care right now. She’s not hostiling anybody. We’ve got the EMS on their way, have you.”
“Hostiling isn’t a word.” Paschal sighed again, then looked at the female angel. That was when he realized just how urgent getting her to a medical facility was. “And an EMS team won’t do much good. We need to get her to Bethesda at least. I can get a tank transporter here to move her.”
Malloy twisted his mouth in a semi-grin. He was having a lot of fun baiting this Army officer even though he knew it would probably bite him in the ass in the long run. “I’ll do you a deal. You take Maion there to Bethesda right away, we’ll take Lemuel to Central Booking and get him signed in. How’s that?”
“Malloy, if you look behind me, you will note that I have half a dozen armored cars here. They’re armed with 20mm cannon. Now, I have seen that pistol of yours and I note that the dirt on the back of your uniform suggests you fell flat on your ass when you fired it. So, let’s just assume that the balance of firepower is in my favor. So, I’ll suggest a deal. We get Lemuel and Maion, we’ll record you as being first-on-scene and them as being your collar. Fair enough? Oh, and I’ll make sure your watch commander knows that you had the situation well in hand when we got here.”
Molloy smiled at the Colonel. “That sounds right fair Colonel.”
“Good, now take a hike before we have a falling-out.”
I-270/Old Georgetown Road interchange, Bethesda, Maryland
The number of humans surrounding Lemuel was growing faster than he could count. All that mattered to him was that some of them had made a straight line for Maion and started to deal with her more obvious injuries. Lemuel knelt quietly on the blacktop, listening to what they said. He understood very little of what they were saying but he did comprehend the tones they were using to say it and that frightened him. Those tones were getting steadily more urgent and the actions of the people treating Maion were becoming more and more frantic.
“What is happening?” The words burst out from him.
The one Lemuel had heard called Colonel Paschal turned around. “She is your mate?”
“She is… Colonel.”
“That makes you next of kin I guess. The doctors here are deeply concerned. They’ll tell you all about it in due course but the short version is that your mate has numerous badly broken bones, severe internal injuries and a lot of superficial ones. We’ve got a vehicle coming, it’ll be here in a few minutes and that will take her to the best local hospital we can find. That’s a place called Bethesda up the road. At the moment, they are trying to stabilize her so she can be moved. They’re not certain they can do that.”
“What will happen if they can’t…. stabilize.… her?” Lemuel saw the sympathetic look on Paschal’s face and knew the answer without being told.
