between them. That’s pretty much what everybody has and if you buy a hat at any mall, this is what it’ll have built into it. The standard aid cap, the one given out to people across the world is just a single layer of aluminum foil, its just folded cooking foil really. I’ll run some propagation tests but my guess is that our caps have an order of magnitude better screening effect on electromagnetic radiation than the standard aid cap.”
“You needn’t run the tests, I can guarantee that is so.” The targeteer smiled. “That laminate was designed to shield military equipment, its ability to shield against incident electromagnetic signals or surges is very high. This use for it was purely serendipitous. Worked in our favor though, the sheer scale of production needed for hats has cut the cost of the laminate way down.”
“EMP resistance.” Kuroneko wasn’t really asking a question.
“You got it. Also shielding bridges on warships from their own radars and other emitters.”
“Well, that just about explains the differential. But, there’s something else that is worrying me. Why is the death toll so low? According to the Sanchez letter, Uriel killed anything and everything within his lethal radius. Here, he’s achieved that against unprotected animals but his score against humans is tiny. Even against the worst- protected of our people, he’s scoring less than five percent and if our distribution map is to be believed, even poor shielding cuts that to almost zero. There’s something else here people, and we’re missing it.”
Headquarters, League of the Holy Court, Eternal City
Lemuel-Lan-Michael sighed gently and eased back in his seat. The pursuit of idolators, blasphemers and heretics sounded glamorous but the fact of the matter was that it usually ended up as a mass of tedious paperwork. The hunt for the source of the human potion that had been found in Ishmael’s possession was turning out to be exactly that kind of hunt. The interrogation of Ishmael had been all too effective, faced with the threat of another session under a bucket of water he has spilled out everybody whose name he had even heard of. The problem had first been going through those names and eliminating the insignificant. Of course, therein lay the first problem, how could he know who was significant and who was not?
Even after the obvious candidates had been taken off the list, it was still a frighteningly long document. The next step had been to compare that list with all the others they had, ones obtained from other heretics and blasphemers, lists of those suspected of being part of idolator groups, others who had, perhaps, too elevated an idea of their position in Heaven. There were those who did not comprehend that even being allowed into The Eternal City was privilege enough and they should be eternally grateful for it. This had led to another problem, every time the same name appeared on Ishmael’s list and one of those other lists, it resulted in a chain of linkages that spread across dozens of scrolls. Lemuel-Lan-Michael had given up trying to keep a mental note of all the cross- references and had created a chart that covered most of the wall of his office.
It was that chart that had resulted in him running head-on into the third of his problems. He had some of his Ishim clerks copy out the lists on to the wall and then he’d painstakingly drawn in colored lines to indicate the linkages. The wall had swiftly vanished behind a mass of color but the picture that had emerged was rather frightening. It suggested that all the lists were linked and cross-linked, that what the League of the Holy Court had been treating as separate cases were, in fact, part of a great underground conspiracy. It was also apparent that Ishmael himself was only a very minor cog in that conspiracy. That was chilling for one of the consequences of the chart drawn on his wall was that the conspiracy had extended to include angels in its ranks. This was not unprecedented but the precedent that existed was not one to ease the mind of an investigative angel. It reminded him all too clearly of the time, uncounted millennia before, when Satan had been planning his revolt. Was he, Lemuel, looking at the battleground of a repeat version of the Great Celestial War? And did Heaven have the strength to continue the war against the humans if it was split internally by a civil war? Michael-Lan needed to know of this immediately.
“Gazardiel.” Lemuel called out for one of his messengers, a trustworthy Malachim who would gain immediate access to Michael-Lan. Gazardiel-Lan-Lemuel received his instructions, bowed respectfully and took off, leaving Lemuel to ponder the problem that he was uncovering. So lost was he in the great chart before him that he failed to notice Michael-Lan entering the offices.
“I see you have unusual taste in wall-decoration Lemuel-Lan-Michael.”
Michael-Lan’s friendly jibe jerked Lemuel back into the world. He dropped to one knee, folding his wings across his face as he did so. “Michael-Lan, you honor me with your swift arrival. I have uncovered something that concerns me greatly.”
“This is concerned with the source for the human elixir you discovered?”
“In a way, High One. I thought the best way to start would be to find out who Ishmael knew and who would be likely to have supplied him with such a thing. In doing so, I have uncovered what appears to be a plot of the gravest dimensions.” Lemuel looked at Michael-Lan and saw the cloud of concern sweeping across his face. Once again, he reflected on his great good fortune to count such a perceptive Archangel as his friend. “Look, each one of these lists came from the arrest of an idolator or a heretic. The one here, on a blue background, is from Ishmael himself. His own links to others are also in blue. Links from those others to yet more members of the groups are in green, then further links again in red. See how they spread.”
Michael-Lan was studying the lists, disentangling the lines and noting the names linked and, to him, much more importantly, noting the names that were not on the lists or remained unlinked. “But, Lemuel-Lan everybody in Heaven is linked like this. You know the old proverb, everybody in heaven is linked with only six degrees of seperation.”
“I do, High One, but this is different. See how self-contained this list is. Yes, there are linkages that spread all over the texts, but follow them and they remain within defined limits. Those who are linked, retain their links within the same small group and do not stray outside it. There is no link beyond that circle. Michael-Lan, this is not just a normal social network, this has every sign of a conspiracy. Worse, look at some of the names, there are Angels, Ishim, Elohim, Malachim, even Seraphim and one Hashmallim involved. Does this not remind you of the time before the Great Celestial War?”
Michael-Lan studied the charts again. He had to agree with Lemuel-Lan, this had every appearance of being a conspiracy, in some ways worst of all, it wasn’t his. “Lemuel-Lan, you have done noble work here, but this is work that demands the utmost in secrecy. Keep this chart covered at all times, it is for your eyes and mine and nobody else. I feared this discovery the moment you showed me the bottle of human elixir and now those fears have become very real. You are right, there is a blasphemous conspiracy here and one that must be nipped in the bud right away. I will leave you to deal with the humans involved in this while I deal with the angels who need reminding of their station in the great scheme of things.”
Michael-Lan noted down the list of angels identified as being part of the rival conspiracy and decided he had his list of volunteers for pouring the next Bowl of Wrath. Then, he swept out, leaving Lemuel looking at his chart, a sense of fulfillment buoying his spirits.
“Noble One?”
“Yes, Gazardiel-Lan?”
“How could sin and corruption have spread even into angelic ranks?”
“It is the influence of humans, their accursed determination to think for themselves ever leads them into heresy and blasphemy. That is why The One Above All decided that their should be no more admissions of humans into Heaven. See what their mulishness has led them to? If only they had accepted what they were told without argument, the doors of Heaven would still be open to them.” That thought made Lemuel look pensive for without humans, what would Angels use as menial servants?
Then, another thought occurred to him and it troubled him greatly. For the bottle of elixir was truly sin and corruption but it was of a different kind to the arguments over faith that dominated this conspiracy. It was hard to imagine theological disputes over the interpretation of The One Above All’s words to be lubricated by human elixirs. So where did that bottle fit into this? It couldn’t, surely. Looking at his chart, Lemuel-Lan-Michael found his eyes drawn to the small number of names on Ishmael’s list that were not linked to the conspiracy he had uncovered.
Chapter Fourteen
DIMO(N) Office of Nonhuman History and Research, Pentagon, Arlington VA
