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arms, and throw it into the ether.
The LINK-angel's wings unfurl, like a dove's. I have set it to multiply. At
each connection it touches, the dove splits. Soon there is a flock above me. I
pray that Allah is all-forgiving and that I have given enough. As if in
response, I hear the flapping of six hundred dove wings.
Chapter 58 Morningstar, the Adversary
My eyes opened to see Emmaline's face. Blood dotted her cheeks, and I reached
my thumb up to wipe it away. Instead, I left a smudge like war paint. She had
never looked more beautiful to me.
"I'm here," she said. "With you."
There was a weight in her tone that made me wonder. "With me?"
"Against them." She pointed to the sky. An army of angels had appeared. As
much as I hated to admit it, their glory was magnificent. Jibril, seated in a
chariot of fire, led them.
Not Michael.
With Em's help, I pulled myself to my feet. Hatred screamed at the sight of
Jibril and mingled with the strangled cries. I smelled smoke. A muttawa van
had been overturned and was on fire. Maizombies ran everywhere, but had
avoided coming within feet of us. The Guard had been pushed aside, but the
muttawa took up their position and tried to defend the hotel. They hadn't been
doing a good job. Broken glass littered the sidewalk. Maizombies held pieces
in their hands, like swords. They didn't seem to notice when, behind them, an
archangel touched the ground.
Em and I stepped forward.
"I can shoot him again," Em said, with a smile. "Worked pretty well last
time."
"Sure." I smiled. "Go ahead."
She made a gun with her hand, and squeezed one eye shut like a cowboy taking
aim.
My external LINK buzzed with static again. The crowd hushed, perhaps expectant
for another communication with the Dragon. Em's arm lowered slowly.
"Shoot him," I said.
"Don't you feel it?" she asked, a smile forming on her face.
"What?" I asked, but she said nothing. Around us, the frenetic rush of the
Maizombies slowed perceptibly. A woman with a brick in her hand ready to
strike at anyone or anything in her way, blinked as though waking up from a
dream. Her arm dropped. And a smile, like the one on Em's face, spread her
lips.
An image drifted through my external LINK. I heard the flap of wings, and the
flash of a white dove bursting into flight. Hatred snarled. Something was
calming these people. More and more Maizombies loosened their fists. The crowd
began to hush. Everywhere I saw that same inane smile.
Then I heard crackling, a deep crunch, as though someone stood on ice too
thin. Pain shot through my arm. I looked down to see Hatred cracking. I rushed
through the stilling crowd, determined to give Jibril one final blow. As I
passed by the zombies, they turned to me all of them wearing that hideous
grin. One, a boy with a broken tooth standing just in front of Jibril with a
crowbar in his hand, smiled brightly. He gave me the peace sign. "Love, man,"
he said.
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I brought Hatred down on Jibril with all my strength. As it descended, it
broke into pieces so that, by the time my fist reached Jibril, all I did was
slap him on the shoulder, like a comrade.
"Well, brother," he said. "Seems we'll have to wait."
I squeezed his shoulder, and pulled him closer to me. "My pleasure," I said.
"I knew God didn't have the balls. I knew He'd never want to be rid of me."
"Don't flatter yourself, boy. The end is coming. Just not today."
He laughed. And with a smile as bright as the sun, he disappeared. Taking the
host of Heaven with him. "No!" I screamed. "I'm not finished with you!"
"Whoa," said Broken Tooth. "Cool."
Em rushed to my side and gave me a deep lingering kiss. My wings started to
fade, I could feel them abandoning me as well.
"What happened?" I asked
"Dude," said the Maizombie. "It was a bomb. The love bomb."
"We'll get them," Em said into my good ear. "It's not over yet."
I nodded and took her hand. Around us, the zombies shook themselves out. All
of their energy had been transformed into something impotent. They smiled at
each other and us like their namesakes.
"Are you sure?" I looked down at Em. She had been so blind before. Did she
truly see me now? I wondered. "You don't know what you're saying," I said.
"You don't know who I am."
"You are the bright Morning Star who once laid low nations."
I smoothed her dark curls from her face. For a brief moment, the way her locks
curled, they formed three sixes in the middle of her forehead.
Epilogue Mouse
After Page dropped the "love bomb," Kioshi was too happy to kill me. I was
unaffected because my LINK was still on lock down. After many hugs and bows
later, I made my escape to Russia. Man, I wish I were a fly on the wall when
the love wore off. I'd have paid money to see Kioshi's face when he realized
he had lent me his own boat to make my getaway.
Page, that do-gooder, tried to turn himself in for Mai's murder to the
international police, the Order of the Inquisition. They took him into
custody. But it was amazing how lenient people were willing to be when you'd
saved the world, twice.
Thus, at his own suggestion, Page was here, in a Siberian auto plant serving
out his six-month "sentence." After he was done with that, he had volunteered
to do some community service. Allah only knew where that code got his
altruism. It certainly didn't come from me. Like the rogue Inquisitor, I sure
as fuck had no plans to turn myself in to the authorities. I'd rather live my
life offline than spend another minute in an empty hell of a prison.
I tapped the keyboard in my lap. My gear was spliced into a jack in the floor
of the control room, the port used by sys-ops when they needed hard-access
into the robot's command files. Despite the LINK, a lot of programmers still
did line-by-line work by hand, especially in Russia man, these people were
light-years behind most of the world in tech. Now that I was their new Officer
of Technology, that was going to change. Of course, I'd have to work on my
Russian. It sucked.
Hey, buddy, I typed. You in there?
Father?
"Yeah, it's me," I said, although Page couldn't hear me. It always ooged me
out when he called me "father," but, whatever. Mostly I was surprised he still
had any respect left for me.
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