“Thank Hell for that.” Zinder was relieved. “We’re out of our depth here with those joints. We’re fixing the wing bones now, extending the wing inserting titanium screws to hold the bone parts together and splinting, but that five-way joint… We don’t even know where to start. You’re portalling through?”
“Of course.” Mackay was laughing. “With that damned volcano in Iceland spouting dust, it’s getting to be like Hell here in Ireland. Only aircraft with hell-filters are flying and they can’t make it across the Atlantic. We’ll be arriving as soon as the portal is opened.”
“We’ll be waiting for you Eamon. And thank you.”
Zinder shut the link off and went back into the main body of the extemporized ward. It was still being set up and a long line of technicians were bringing equipment over and plugging it into the spaghetti-tangle of extension cables. Maion was stretched out on an operating table constructed from stout cargo pallets. Her wings were almost invisible under the array of two-by-four timbers being used as splints. Beside her, Lemuel sat silently, holding her hand.
“What is this?” Lemuel had looked up and was pointing at a display.
“That monitors her heartbeat, the other one is her blood-oxygen level. We call them vital signs indicators. Maion’s look pretty strong. She’s got this far Lemuel, and she’s a fighter. That’s the most important thing of all. And she’s got all of us fighting alongside her.”
“As long as I do what you say.” Lemuel assumed that was naturally the case and was shocked when Doctor Zinder exploded in anger, his face going dead white except for redness surrounding his eyes.
“How dare you! How dare you suggest I would neglect a patient because you wouldn’t do what somebody else wanted. Listen to me Lemuel, and you’d better remember it. I do not know what kind of society you come from although I can make some guesses. But you are on Earth and this is a hospital. Maion will get the best treatment we can possibly provide. No reservations, no exceptions. When you suggest we might do anything else, you insult me, you insult the people who are working here all night to look after her, you insult the three nurses who risked their lives to make sure she got here safely. You are insulting a group of Irish doctors who are coming thousands of miles on the off-chance that their skills and experience will help Maion fly again.”
Zinder paused, took a deep breath and let his blood pressure go down. “That Colonel out there, Colonel Paschal, yes, he will want you to do things. Give us information, provide us with data. Probably more. And he will offer you deals and put other kinds of pressure on you. But if he walks into this ward and tells us to stop work, we’ll kick his ass out of here. Or, if he talks to that nurse there,” he pointed to Grace, “Colonel or not if he makes the same suggestion to her, she’ll probably head-butt him. Now do we understand each other?”
Lemuel nodded. “I am sorry Doctor.” What neither of them knew was that was the first time in more than four millennia that an angel had made a sincere apology to a human.
UH-60L Quebec-Four-Two, Approaching Bethesda, Maryland.
“An angel. A real, live angel.” Norman Baines was as close to ecstatic as he’d ever been.
“Two of them in fact. Only one of them won’t be talking to anybody for a long time. She’s in intensive care and the medics are still iffy about whether she will survive.” General Schatten hoped that she would, it would make maneuvering her mate so much easier. He looked at Baines and shook his head slightly. Their trip had been slightly delayed while the Director of Research had been found in the archives by his secretary, cleaned up and quickly fed.
“What happened? We shoot her up as she came in?”
“That’s what we are trying to get a handle on and that is why you are here. Her mate brought her in. She’s been badly treated, lost a lot of blood and her mate said that Yahweh ordered it done. His version is that a woman Yahweh favors was jealous of her so Yahweh ordered her to be imprisoned and beaten. Her mate rescued her and brought her here so we could treat her. His story is pretty incoherent.”
The sound of the rotors diminished as the pilot brought the UH-60 in to land. The helicopter landing area was full to capacity with a variety of different birds including one massive helicopter with red-and-blue stars painted on its tail and wings. “What’s that.” Baines pointed at the big helicopter.
“Russian Mi-26. When they heard we have two angels, the Russkies sent it over in case we needed heavy lift capability. Stuffed it up with medical goodies for the angels and vodka for us to celebrate. Look over to the left, we’ve got a Hellgate open to speed transport here. I hear kitten herself opened that one. That’s how the ‘26 came in.”
The helicopter landed on the road outside the medical center and the passengers disembarked, making the traditional bend down in deference to the wash coming off the rotors. “Sirs, if you will come with me, I’ll take you to the Angelic Treatment Ward.” Once they would have ridden in an Army staff car or Humvee but the fuel shortage had put an end to those pretensions. These days, even Generals walked.
Much of the frantic chaos that had surrounded the angelic arrival in Bethesda had ebbed away by the time they reached the treatment area. All the necessary equipment was set up, the female angel was stabilized on life support and all that was left was to watch and wait. The male angel was sitting on the grass outside, his head between his knees. That was convenient since it minimized the size difference between him and the humans.
“I’m Norman Baines, Director of Research at DIMO(N) Office of Nonhuman History and Research. How is your mate?”
“Maion is resting comfortably so I am told. The doctors say she is in a chemically-induced therapeutic coma. I hope that means more to you than it does to me.”
Baines looked at the angel carefully. “You are of high rank are you not? May I know your name?”
“I am Lemuel-Lan-Michael. I am Ophanim.” Lemuel paused for a moment “You know the Hierarchy of the Angelic Host?”
“In outline, yes. Ophanim is very close to the top is it not? And you are a servant of Michael himself, the Great General of Heaven?”
“What is going on?” Schatten was a General, he was supposed to be the one who treated people like mushrooms.
“We’ve got a real catch here. ‘Lan’ means ‘servant of’. Lemuel here is a direct servant of Michael-Lan-Yahweh which puts him two steps below the supreme power. He’s an Ophanim which puts him very close to the apex of the Host hierarchy. The holy texts describe the Ophanim as being four, eye-covered wheels each composed of two nested wheels. It’s long been thought that the description is symbolic and actually refers to the Ophanim as being the powers that actually keep Heaven running. If Lemuel is defecting to us, its like, oh, the Secretary of State going over to the enemy.” Baines shook with sheer delight. “Lemuel, what was your role in Heaven?”
“I was chief investigator of the League of Holy Court.”
“If our references are anything like correct, the League of Holy Court is Yahweh’s very own police force and intelligence service. Forget what I said about the Secretary of State going over, this is like the head of the KGB coming over to us in the middle of the Cold War.” Baines spoke quietly, then turned his attention back to Lemuel. “Why did you come here Lemuel-Lan-Michael?”
“Maion was badly hurt and might die. Michael-Lan said that only humans could save her.” Lemuel gathered his breath and finally committed himself. The outburst from Doctor Zinder was still running through his mind and he thought of the way the doctors and nurses were fighting to save a being who they had never met before and, if anything, was one of their enemies. Yet the sights, sounds and smells of the concentration camp where Yahweh dealt with his foes still swirled in his head and the contrast between the two was tearing his soul apart. When he spoke, he did so very fast as if he was trying to get the words out and commit himself before he could change his mind. “Yahweh has gone mad and is destroying the Angelic Host. He has established camps run by demons where angels who he dislikes are sent. Maion was a victim of one such camp. He is creating factions in Heaven and putting one against the other. After seeing one such camp, Michael-Lan sent me with a message for humans. He says that he will fight Yahweh, try to prevent more slaughter and destruction. He will try and depose Yahweh but he desperately needs help. He tasks me with opening a portal for you so that you can send your armies to depose Yahweh and your… doctors… to aid those who have been so cruelly used. If you will allow me, I will open the way to Heaven for you.”
Chapter Sixty Three
