“Oh yes, its coming.” Norman Baines was firm on that point. In some ways, this would be the culmination of his life’s work. The end of days, the final battle. The millennium. It had lots of names and he’d studied all of them for years. Now, he was going to see them. A truly unexpected privilege. “We’ve had all seven bowls, we’ve seen off the Leopard Beast and the Scarlet Beast. Now, it’s the Lamb Beast, the Dragon and the invasion. Not necessarily in that order.”
“I don’t suppose the ancient mythologies say where?” Gates thought that was probably too much to hope for.
“Well, Sir, yes they do. The plains of Megiddo, Armageddon. But, Abigor’s host tried that and they walked into the best army we had fielded. they may try somehwere else as a result. But, all these prophecies are centered around the Middle East. If it isn’t one part, it’ll be another.”
“Doesn’t matter anyway. Dave Petraeus has the HEA waiting in Hell. As soon as the Heavenly Host portals in, he’s going to portal three army groups in all around it. It’s going to be a slaughterhouse.” General Bannistre was as non-committal as everybody else.
“General, Sir, I must warn you. The Heavenly Host is a lot more powerful than Abigor’s Army was.” Baines cranked some numbers quickly in his head. It’s likely to have more than twenty million angels in its combat formations.”
General Bannistre grinned sympathetically. “Don’t sweat it son. Dave blasted his way into Hell and stormed it with 30 divisions. We’re landing three hundred and eighty divisions around the Angelic Host. We’ll only be outnumbered four to one. And there’ll be no holding back this time, we’ll be hitting them with nukes, gas, whatever floats our boat. We weren’t ready for Abigor, but we’ve had a year, 18 months nearly, to get ready for the Host.”
“And they’ll pay for lying to us, deceiving us, betraying us.” President Obama’s voice from the end of the briefing table was calm and measured. “Our ammunition stocks are adequate?”
“They are indeed Mister President. We’re back to where we were in 2007 at last. Adequate, not over-generous but the production lines are rolling fast. We won’t need so long to replace this lot after we’ve fired it all off.”
The laughter than ran around the room had a vicious edge to it. “And so we should, with a 1.6 trillion dollar defense budget.” That put a sad note into Obama’s voice, There was so much he had wanted to do, so many changes he wanted to make. Instead, he was presiding over the biggest defense budget in American history, one that was likely to cripple the economy for decades to come. All his plans had come to nothing and he was all too sure he would go down in American history as a wartime leader only.
“Why haven’t we seen the Lamb Beast or the Dragon yet Baines?” General Bannistre was worried about that.
“I don’t know Sir. But I have an odd theory. We’ve been assuming that they were giant monsters like the Scarlet Beast and the Leopard Beast. But suppose they’re not. Suppose, just for one, Revelation is allegorical on this one point. The Lamb Beast speaks like a lamb but breathes fire when it has to. Doesn’t that sound like Jesus? The lamb of God and all that. And the Dragon Beast, of omnipotent power, could well be Yahweh himself. It’s only a theory of course but it would explain why they haven’t turned up yet.”
“What happens if Yahweh doesn’t invade? Do we have a plan B?” Secretary of State Clinton put the question that was on the back of everybody’s mind.
“We do Madam Secretary but we don’t like it. It involves punching portals at random until we get lucky. Of course, we could run into something we can’t handle very easily that way. That’s why we’ve avoided doing so up to now.”
Hillary Clinton nodded. “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.”
Norman Baines made a comic play of going faint and grabbing a chair for support. “Madam Secretary don’t ever say that. HE might hear you.”
Chapter Fifty Eight
The Montmartre Club, Eternal City, Heaven
It had been a long time since Maion-Lan-Lemuel had been outside the Club. At first, she had wanted to leave, she had even half-heartedly planned to escape, but the opportunity had never really presented itself. So, she had resigned herself to her new life and tried to adapt to it as best she could. In the process, she had learned of its advantages and they were not just restricted to the supply of white powder that she needed so badly. As her familiarity with her new life had grown, she had come to enjoy being the center of attraction and desire. Then of course, the lessons she had been patiently taught by Charmeine-Lan and the other angels who worked at the club. Lessons that she had used to catch Lemuel and persuade him to become her patron. She knew very well that Lemuel’s patronage of her was part of some larger scheme Michael was concocting but to her that didn’t matter. All that she cared about was that she had a much better life now than anything she could have hoped for earlier. It hadn’t seemed so at the time but Michael-Lan had done her a great service.
She closed her eyes briefly and then checked herself in the great mirrors that marked the entry to the Club. She checked her hair to make sure that it was styled to perfection in a manner that Lemuel found particularly becoming. Her make-up was perfectly in place and that alone was a mark of how far she had come for few female angels used it. Her robe was new, perfect and draped around her just so. She checked her jewelry to make sure it was all items that Lemuel had given her. A quick turn showed that her wing feathers had been groomed and arranged to perfection. She nodded, she was looking as near-perfect as she could be and was that meant she was honoring Lemuel properly.
“Don’t worry, you look fine.” The voice came from behind her and she turned carefully to face the speaker. Leilah-Lan-Charmeine was standing there, complete in what Maion thought of as her professional outfit. It was as different from the traditional Angelic robes as was possible, all of it black leather with dress and spiked boots glistening with metal buckles. Her wing feathers had been dyed black as well and the general effect was intimidating. Which was its purpose of course.
“So do you, you look… different.” Maion stumbled, looking for the right word for she knew that Leilah was one of Michael’s close associates.
Leilah giggled. “I know what you mean. Still, its what my particular clients like.” Then she got very serious, very quickly. “Be careful Maion, things have changed in Heaven since you were outside the club last. There was another bombing last night, at a the Temple of Enduring Adulation. Eight angels and a lot of humans killed.” And one of the angels was a major-league Yahweh supporter. One of many killed in the bombing campaign that is rocking The Eternal City. The League of Holy Court still hasn’t worked out that mixed in with the miscellaneous dead are all of the most prominent Yahweh loyalists. But then they wouldn’t, not with their chief investigator besotted with you.
“Oh no.” Maion put her hand to her mouth.
“So be careful. Where are you going?”
“My patron Lemuel has asked me to his palace for our evening meal and to listen to reverential music.”
Yeah right little one. And the music in question will you be going ohhh-ohhh-ohhh. “That is a great honor. You have done well Maion. Now, I have one of my patrons waiting and he has been a bad, bad archangel. Enjoy your evening.”
Maion watched Leilah disappear into the main body of the Club, stopping only to speak quickly with one of the messengers. Then, she took a deep breath, put her hand on one of the walls of the maze as she had been taught and started to walk out. All she had to do was to keep that hand on that wall until she came to the landmark when she would put the other hand on the other wall. And that would lead her out. As indeed it did.
The clear white light on the street was much brighter than she remembered from before her days in the Club. It hurt her eyes and she was afraid that it would make them water and that would spoil her makeup. Still, she was out of the Club, walking on the streets in a way she had thought she never would again. Once she had blamed Michael for what had happened to her but no more. It was her fault that she had been inside for so long, if she had worked harder in the club and been more agreeable in her earlier days, she would have found her patron sooner. She had brought her problems on herself, she understood that now. Michael-Lan had been kind to stand by her, just as she knew he always would.