Peerless Name.” Very inventively if I may say so “and they have evicted You from their places of learning and from their government offices. In all their cities and towns, from all their public places, and even from each person’s home You have been cast out. No longer do they give glory to You, and they continue to do their evil deeds. Putting it bluntly, Father of All, they have decided that they do not want You. Your own Holy Church has disowned you and curse your name as a usurper who has replaced the One True God.”
It was an all-time record, Michael-Lan had never got continuing thunderclaps and technicolor lightning this early in a meeting before. Marble fragments sprayed from the walls and lashed across the room. Michael-Lan glanced across to the traditional position of the Master mason and saw why the throne room hadn’t been fully repaired. The mason had built himself a quite well-designed bunker in one corner. As Michael watched, a stick with a white flag on the end rose from behind the walls and waved backwards and forwards. The movement attracted the attention of a pair of Seraphim who abandoned their cover behind a table and fled to the bunker. They vanished behind the walls, then were unceremoniously thrown out. Fortunately for them, the storm of fragments was dying down and they escaped with only a few serious wounds.
“What of Uriel-Lan? Has he redeemed his earlier failures?” The voice boomed across the still-roiling clouds that surrounded the Great Throne.
“He has carried out another attack, on a small town outside the city of San Diego. It was a hard battle, so I understand, and the humans fought well. They used their cruellest weapons and they drove him off. It must be said that Uriel is also believed to have fought bravely before being forced to retreat. There are reports that he is badly injured and the humans still hunt him with their beasts and machines. If they catch him, it will go hard for him. Forgiveness and mercy are not human characteristics.” Sorry, little humans, that libels you I know. So sue me. Michael hesitated for a moment, acutely conscious of all the lawsuits that were piling up over “Acts of God”. On second thoughts, please don’t. I can’t afford it. And in truth, your forgiveness and mercy exceeds the divine by far.
“He is defeated yet may still live?” Yahweh’s voice echoed concern.
“That is correct, Oh Lord Of All.”
“I would see him here. I would seek his explanation of his failures at first hand Michael-Lan. Arrange for his location and rescue. At once.”
Oh damn. “Your wish is my command Oh Lord Above All. Now, once again, may I bring to your attention the need to strike at the center of the Human spirit. I mean of course the City of Jerusalem. It would be a good target for the Scarlet Beast and for Dumah.” And it would give the Israelis something to shoot at. I’ve always wondered how good they really are
“Jerusalem. Yes that will strike at their hearts and souls.” Yahweh paused for a moment, thinking of the sad fate of Wuffles and Michael could swear that he saw him brush a tear from one eye. “But make sure that both Fluffy and Dumah know what they must do and ensure that they take care. Now what of the Bowls of Wrath? Is the Fourth Bowl poured yet?”
“Not yet, Lord of All, the time is not yet ripe.” Meaning neither I nor Belial have come up with a solution to that particular problem. Belial really is a great disappointment. “But I have news, the hurricane season is starting again on Earth, we can lash them with Your Divine Wrath once more.”
“Let it be so. And get Uriel here.”
The Montmartre Club, Heaven
“It really is most inconsiderate of him Raffie. He just won’t die.”
“Perhaps the humans are less powerful than you believe.”
Michael-Lan shook his head. “They’re deadly all right. They’re like the asp, very pretty to look at until they spread their hoods and sink their teeth into you. Then you die. Raffie, don’t ever underestimate humans, Satan did and the mistake killed him. Yahweh’s doing it and its costing him everything he has. Uriel’s been really lucky so far, that’s all. Plus the fact he’s the most powerful enemy the humans have ever faced. But, they’ll get him if we don’t rescue him.”
“Who are you going to send?” Raphael was hoping desperately he wouldn’t hear the word ‘you’.”
Michael-Lan was thinking that over. Instinctively, he would like to have sent a crew that were on his ‘to be disposed of’ list but that wouldn’t do. He was acutely aware of the fact that, in the great game he was playing, he was his own most powerful piece. “I’ll do this myself.”
Raphael relaxed so obviously that it made Michael-Lan grin. Then he waved at the stage. “The new girl is doing well up there.”
“Maion? Yes she is working out well. She was sulky and uncooperative at first but Charmeine-Lan put her in with some of our less gentle clients when she was behaving badly and with the kinder ones when she was conducting herself properly. She got the message soon enough, enthusiasm and cooperation got her a better class of playmate, and she comported herself accordingly.” Michael watched as Maion swung herself around the pole in the center of the stage, letting the feathers on the trailing edge of her left wing brush the audience sitting closest to her. She lifted one leg, wrapped it around her pole and started to slide down it. When she reached the bottom, she arched backwards, then straightened up. During the process, she dropped another part of her robe to the cheers of the crowd. “Yes she is doing well.”
“Michael-Lan, what do you plan to do about Lemuel? He’s getting closer.”
“He is, isn’t he. What do you suggest I do?”
“Kill him.”
Michael-Lan shook his head. “Bad move Raffie. Think about it. At the moment, the investigation he is officially running is actually helping us and he is the best person we could have in that job. The other investigation, the one that could lead to us, is private, or at least tightly confined. Now, if he dies, the first investigation gets disrupted and remember, we have rivals out there. People will look into his files, they’ll find out about his second investigation and that’ll make it all official. We’ll be the subject of a real League of the Holy Court hunt and that will mean serious problems for us all. So Lemuel lives. What we will do is send him down a blind alley, one where he can find all sorts of interesting things that are utterly unimportant.” Michael-Lan thought for a second. “Of course, the other option is to bring him into our little club here. Get him on our side. Human pleasures are seductive and having the best investigator in the League of the Holy Court working for us will be very useful indeed.”
“Risky.”
“Of course, but the rewards would be great. Ah, Maion’s finished her dance.” Up on the stage, the blonde angel was nude and knelt before the audience, sweeping her wings over to cover her head. An Erelim rose from his table close by the stage and took her hand, bringing her to his table. Michael waved unobtrusively and Charmeine-Lan came over to join him.
“Raffie, you know Charmeine-Lan, don’t you? She runs the girls who work here. Charmeine, we were just commenting on how well Maion seems to have settled in.
Charmeine-Lan thought for a second. “She was difficult at first but aren’t they all? Her addiction helps of course, if she goes short, she gets very cooperative very fast. But, once she’d settled in, everything worked out. In addition to her heroin, I’ve been keeping her on some other stuff, just to take the edge off so to speak. But she’s worked out some very good variations on the reverential dances she’d been taught. I think she’ll make it just fine.”
“No trouble with clients?”
“She panicked the first time one got rough with her but that’s all. Don’t worry Michael-Lan, she’s doing fine.”
“Who, me worry.” Michael-Lan threw his hands up in a traditional Alfred E Neuman gesture and his companions burst out laughing. Charmeine-Lan patted his hand and left. “Well, Raffie, one more round, then I’ve got to work out how to pull Uriel’s nuts, if he still has ownership rights on them, out of the fire.”
Second Regimental Headquarters, First Cavalry Division, Banks of the Irawaddy, Myanmar
“The trouble is that we haven’t actually advanced more than 250 miles, nobody in this crazy offensive has.” Senior Colonel Mahindra looked at the fuel bowsers that were feeding his armored cars and shook his head. It wasn’t just that they were American fuel trucks, it was the fact they had just materialized in the middle of his laager. He still couldn’t get used to the way his logistics train was working, he radioed for supplies and a helicopter with a sensitive and the equipment to open a portal arrived. Then there would be a black hole in the center of his camp and the trucks with his supplies would just drive out. He couldn’t help thinking he had the strategist’s dream here. A supply line that just materialized whatever he needed, where he needed it.
