Sins of Angels (complete)
Author: Matt Larkin; J. S. Morin
Date: 2013-01-01 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction; Fantasy; Thriller
Description: After millennia of oppressive dogma, one rebellious woman seeks to change it all and spark a galactic enlightenment. When Rachel Jordan dares to question the ancient beliefs governing her world, she finds herself alone. For refusing to conform, the inquisitors have branded her a heretic. Redeemers have hunted her to a remote corner of the universe, intent on forcing her back into obedience. But she isn’t hiding. Armed with proof that the angels who saved mankind weren’t angels at all, she will break this cycle and bring freedom to humanity! Echoes of Angels is the first book of Sins of Angels
Publisher: Magical Scrivener Press

Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Author's Note

Echoes of Angels

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-One

Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Three

Chapter Thirty-Four

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty-One

Chapter Forty-Two

Chapter Forty-Three

Chapter Forty-Four

Chapter Forty-Five

Chapter Forty-Six

Chapter Forty-Seven

Chapter Forty-Eight

Chapter Forty-Nine

Shadows of Angels

Chapter Fifty

Chapter Fifty-One

Chapter Fifty-Two

Chapter Fifty-Three

Chapter Fifty-Four

Chapter Fifty-Five

Chapter Fifty-Six

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Chapter Sixty

Chapter Sixty-One

Chapter Sixty-Two

Chapter Sixty-Three

Chapter Sixty-Four

Chapter Sixty-Five

Chapter Sixty-Six

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Chapter Seventy

Chapter Seventy-One

Chapter Seventy-Two

Chapter Seventy-Three

Chapter Seventy-Four

Chapter Seventy-Five

Chapter Seventy-Six

Chapter Seventy-Seven

Chapter Seventy-Eight

Chapter Seventy-Nine

Chapter Eighty

Chapter Eighty-One

Chapter Eighty-Two

Chapter Eighty-Three

Chapter Eighty-Four

Chapter Eighty-Five

Chapter Eighty-Six

Chapter Eighty-Seven

Chapter Eighty-Eight

Chapter Eighty-Nine

Chapter Ninety

Chapter Ninety-One

Chapter Ninety-Two

Chapter Ninety-Three

Chapter Ninety-Four

Chapter Ninety-Five

Wrath of Angels

Chapter Ninety-Six

Chapter Ninety-Seven

Chapter Ninety-Eight

Chapter Ninety-Nine

Chapter One Hundred

Chapter One Hundred One

Chapter One Hundred Two

Chapter One Hundred Three

Chapter One Hundred Four

Chapter One Hundred Five

Chapter One Hundred Six

Chapter One Hundred Seven

Chapter One Hundred Eight

Chapter One Hundred Nine

Chapter One Hundred Ten

Chapter One Hundred Eleven

Chapter One Hundred Twelve

Chapter One Hundred Thirteen

Chapter One Hundred Fourteen

Chapter One Hundred Fifteen

Chapter One Hundred Sixteen

Chapter One Hundred Seventeen

Chapter One Hundred Eighteen

Chapter One Hundred Nineteen

Chapter One Hundred Twenty

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-One

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Two

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Three

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Four

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Five

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Six

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Seven

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Eight

Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Nine

Chapter One Hundred Thirty

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-One

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Two

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Three

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Four

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Five

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Six

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Seven

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Eight

Fall of Angels

Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Nine

Chapter One Hundred Forty

Chapter One Hundred Forty-One

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Two

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Three

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Four

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Five

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Six

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Seven

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Eight

Chapter One Hundred Forty-Nine

Chapter One Hundred Fifty

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-One

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Two

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Three

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Four

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Five

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Six

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Seven

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Eight

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Nine

Chapter One Hundred Sixty

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-One

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Two

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Three

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Four

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Five

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Six

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Seven

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Eight

Chapter One Hundred Sixty-Nine

Chapter One Hundred Seventy

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-One

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Two

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Three

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Four

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Five

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Six

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Seven

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Eight

Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Nine

Chapter One Hundred Eighty

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-One

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Two

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Three

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Four

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Five

Chapter One Hundred Eighty-Six

Keep Reading

About the Author

SINS OF ANGELS (THE COMPLETE COLLECTION)

Books 1-4

MATT LARKIN

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, businesses, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental.

SINS OF ANGELS (THE COMPLETE COLLECTION)

Copyright © 2014 Matt Larkin

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Edited by Brenda Pierson

Covers by Juhi Larkin

Published by Incandescent Phoenix Books
incandescentphoenix.com
mattlarkin.net

Echoes of Angels, For Brian, for making sure a fantasy geek was also a sci-fi geek.

Shadows of Angels, For Christine. You are missed.

Wrath of Angels, For Ginny, because you rock.

Fall of Angels, For Matt. Having a friend who believes in you makes a world of difference.

This volume collects the entirety of the Sins of Angels series. These books take place approximately 3200 years in the future, 3100 years after the coming of an alien threat called the Adversary. Angels arrived to save mankind, but Earth became a wasteland.

Writing sci-fi instead of fantasy has been a real learning experience for me, and a bit of a treat. I truly hope you enjoy this journey as much as I have. And I look forward to hearing from readers with their thoughts on favorite characters.

CHAPTER ONE

September 21st, 3096 EY, the journal of Rachel Jordan:

I’m keeping this journal as scientific record of what I believe will be the most important discovery since the Exodus from Eden, more than 3000 years ago. I have arrived on planet Gehenna in pursuit of a lead pertaining to the Sefer Raziel. This unlikely world with no strategic value may well become the site of the transformation of mankind.

Gehenna stank. The breather Rachel suctioned over her face allowed her to survive the planet’s sulfuric vapors and toxic atmosphere, but it didn’t quite cut out the smell—a blend of rotten eggs and a chemistry lab.

She cast a glance over her shoulder and quickened her steps down the road. Maybe there was no one back there, but she couldn’t be too careful. Every time she stepped outside, there was the chance they would find her.

Still, she had to eat, and there was no way she was taking another meal in that hotel. No matter the situation one found oneself in, one had to live. Even on a planet with a red, ash-filled sky.

The Babel Bazaar was famous, or perhaps infamous, as an underground hangout for all walks of life. The entrance, just ahead, looked like a many tiered spire. It might have seemed tall, if not for the buildings around it. The soot-colored skyscrapers rimming the street stretched a hundred or more stories up, shadowing the already dark streets of Beeroth.

Rachel slapped the buzzer and the airlock slid open. A moment after she stepped through, the outer door resealed itself and a wave of pressurized air washed over her. She waited a few breaths before releasing the suction on her breather. A few minutes of Gehennan air probably wouldn’t kill her, but why take the chance?

The inner door slid open and she was struck by a barrage of noise, sights, and smells. Just down the stairs, people hawked wares in crowded aisles, cafes offered everything from coffees and liquors to full meals, and nearly nude prostitutes beckoned men and women alike. Rachel shook her head, smirking. Her father would have a conniption if he saw this place. A ‘den of sin’, he’d call it.

The airlock opened again behind her. Rachel stepped back against the wall, hand on the MAG strapped to her thigh. A couple, probably around her own thirty years, strolled in and almost immediately followed one of the prostitutes behind a closed door.

She had to get a grip. The Redeemers might have followed her to this planet. Maybe. But they weren’t here right now. The people walking behind her weren’t Redeemers. The thought of Redeemers searching this place almost—almost—made her smile. Speaking of people who would lose their shit in the Babel Bazaar. But such mirth was short lived. If they found her, she’d wish she were dead.

Rachel waded into the crowd, keeping toward the center of the aisle until she spotted a sign for “Gourmet Triangulum Food”. Perfect.

Gehenna wasn’t part of the Mizraim Empire, so maybe she could actually find some decent Asheran food here. Not that foreign food was illegal in Mizraim, it was just so hard to come by. She slipped inside the restaurant. The owner probably intended the dim lights to be relaxing, but since he had no music playing and they were already underground, it seemed more oppressive to Rachel than anything. But she was here, so she sat at a table in the back, one where she could watch the door.

A digital display lit up on the tabletop as soon as she sat. Funny, on such a backwater planet, she’d almost expected a human to come take her order. Some of the places she went for archaeological digs still did that. She swiped through the pages and tapped on Asheran hot noodles. Something spicy would do nicely.

Ten minutes later, a girl dropped a plate of steaming noodles on the table. “Need anything else?”

Rachel needed a lot of things right now. “I’m looking for some information.”

The girl leaned in, looking Rachel right in the eye, but said nothing. Emotions roiled just behind the girl’s eyes. Greed, opportunity, an edge of fear covered with bravado. Rachel wasn’t much of a Psych, really, but she was a strong enough empath to get an idea when people were focused on her. And this girl saw a mark.

Rachel smirked and slipped the waitress a kesitah. She’d imprinted dozens of the local currency chips with small bribes for these situations. Kesitahs came cheap compared to Mizraim credits anyway. Her server pressed her thumb to the metal to check its value, then smiled like a kid with her first set of holo glasses. “Talk to Ariel, down on the second sub-level. Tell her Judy sent you.” With that, the girl spun and walked away.

Rachel tapped the water dispenser on the table and filled her glass, then sampled the hot noodles. The startling sensation of cayenne, citrus, and Triangulum bubble sauce washed over her tongue. Yeah, she’d missed this food. Yet another thing her family would likely rake her over the coals for, if they knew.

Dear old Dad called the entire Asheran Confederacy khapiru, and said they were headed straight to hell. Of course, when people talked about hell, they probably had Gehenna in mind. In the Days of Glory the planet had been a penal colony for those foolish enough to anger the Angels. In the six hundred years since the Vanishing, the world had become an independent entity. Independent because neither the Mizraim Empire nor the Asheran Confederacy would take in a toxic hellhole on the edge of the Expanse of Nod.

When she’d arrived here a few days back, Rachel had found one of the least-crowded spaceports she’d ever seen. No one in their right mind came here. Which probably meant she was a bit off rotation, too. But if the Sefer was really here… well, she’d travel to hell and back to find it.

After finishing her noodles, she left the restaurant, her fingers brushing over her MAG as she returned to the breezeway. Couldn’t be too careful. She watched the people as she headed toward the stairs to the lower level.

A pair of soldiers in feature-concealing body armor strolled by, and the crowd parted around them like a river flowing around rocks. Their armor was chromed, even the faceplates, so Rachel couldn’t judge much about them. They wore the insignia of the Gehennan government, a pegasus. As though Gehenna were claiming rights to the whole Pegasus Dwarf galaxy. Never mind that ninety percent of it was ruled by the Mizraim Empire. Rachel smirked, and kept her head down. Everybody had pride.

Something brushed against her side. She spun, but whoever it was had already disappeared into the crowd. One of the purses of kesitahs was missing from her jacket pocket. She scowled, scanning the crowd and knowing it was in vain. The money didn’t matter much, but she’d let someone walk up and touch her, and get away without a trace. This place was too crowded. There was no way to keep track of everyone. Any one of those people could be a Redeemer.

She suppressed a shudder. She was being paranoid. A Redeemer would likely be beside himself with apoplexy here. Not too hard to spot. Still, she hurried down the stairs to the next sub-level. An Angelologist had to go where the leads were. If she could brave this planet, she could handle a crowded Bazaar.

Angel technology had advanced mankind thousands of years, maybe tens of thousands. But now the Angels were gone and they hadn’t shared freely. And Rachel intended to see mankind reap the full benefit of two and half millennia of servitude to that theocracy. Days of Glory, indeed.

The second sub-level was much like the first, except numerous side halls broke away, creating a series of loops that would make it easier to get lost down here. And this wasn’t the kind of place she should just stop and ask someone for help, though it was as thick with people as the first level. Apparently, she should have gotten more information from that serving girl. With a sigh, Rachel strode down one of the halls. She passed a weapon shop that, oddly, had more knives than MAGs. Who carried knives? Curiosity almost made her stop inside and ask what the point—no pun intended—of a knife was. But that wasn’t why she was here.

She continued on until she spotted a woman hovering in the shadows, by a closed door. Could be Ariel. Or could know how to find her if she wasn’t. All right, then, time for business. Rachel squared her shoulders and strode straight for her.

As if from nowhere, a man stepped in front of her. “I got what you’re looking for, long hair.”

“How do you know what I want?”

The man smirked. “I just know, whatever it is, I got it.” His emotions were a roil of filth—lust, greed, a burning desire for violence. Rachel had known too many men like him.

“Is that Ariel?”

The man glanced back at the woman in the shadows. “I don’t know her name, long hair. But she’s already got what you need. I mean look at her. Look at the peace on her face. I got that for you.” The man winked at her. He was probably in his late thirties—it was hard to tell—and had fairly fine clothes. The vest could have been nanomesh, or it could have been real leather.

“I don’t think I’m looking for the same thing she is,” Rachel said, and backed away, toward the center breezeway.

The man edged around her. “You ever tried Mammon, long hair?”

Rachel rolled her eyes. Her hair wasn’t even that long—halfway down her back at most. She opened her mouth, but the dealer just kept talking.

“Makes you fly, right? One drop under the tongue and you’d get a glimpse of heaven like the Angels always promised. Better than sex, girl… but no reason you can’t have both.” The man reached a hand toward her shoulder. His desire rolled off him in waves, enough to turn her stomach.

Rachel slapped the hand away and pulled her MAG, pointing it at the man’s chest. “Thanks anyway, but you’re not my type. And melting my brain with designer drugs is not something I aspire to. Now back off.”

The man ground his teeth. “Offworlder, huh? Think you can just come in here, waving that around? Probably already saturated with the air outside, ain’t it?” The dealer reached for her gun.

Rachel pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened. The rail didn’t even hum. It should have hummed the moment she drew it. Rachel felt a sudden chill.

The dealer grabbed the MAG in one hand, a knife appearing in the other.

“You don’t want to play nice, long hair? Fine. I bet after a few tastes of Mammon, you’ll be back begging me for more. Or maybe I’ll just sell your tight Mizraim tail to some suit who needs a bit of fun on the side, huh?”

Rachel tried to back away, but he had a solid grip on her MAG, and she couldn’t lose that. He leaned in closer, like he was going to sniff her hair or something. Rachel kneed him in the groin.

The man crumpled to the ground and lost his grip on the gun. Rachel yanked it away and ran back toward the breezeway. A heartbeat later, a shout went up behind her.

“Cut the bitch!”

Well, damn. Rachel threaded her way into the crowd. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people roamed this bazaar. She just needed to blend with them. She buttoned her coat to cover her fine green shirt. Most of the locals dressed in black, brown, or other drab colors. While she walked she tucked her hair into the back of her jacket. Let him find his “long hair” now.

She made her way to the opposite side of the breezeway, where the crowd flowed back up the stairs. The meeting with Ariel would have to wait.

First, she needed to get clear of this place. And figure out what in the holy universe had happened to her MAG.

CHAPTER TWO

Abandoned Angel tech may have initially advanced mankind by millennia, but Angel theology must have ultimately stunted our technological growth. The Covenant itself serves as the root of stagnation in our development, but is hardly the only problem.

She really was off rotation. Of course a place like that had drug dealers. It wasn’t like Rachel hadn’t visited seedy planets before. Most of her investigations took her to the edges of the Empire and beyond. She’d even been to the Triangulum galaxy once, not that she’d admit crossing the Asheran border out loud.

The moment she returned outside she caught herself almost running down the street. It was time to get a handle on this. She’d look a lot more like a victim running through these dirty streets than she would walking at a steady pace. She tried to breathe deeply. The breather over her nose and mouth was stifling, but she didn’t dare remove it. Instead she pulled her hair free and walked calmly to the monorail station. There was no airlock here, just a tunnel leading down to the underground train. Ash covered everything. She glanced at the rusty metal benches. No. Better to wait standing than get that stuff all over her clothes.

Her clothes… Angels above, she hoped she wouldn’t have to buy a nanomesh vest herself. She’d rarely found body armor necessary, but if she was going back to the Bazaar, she needed to be prepared.

The monorail shrieked as it arrived, the mind-grating sound of metal on poorly maintained metal.

More Gehennan soldiers departed the train alongside other passengers. Rachel slipped onto the train as soon as the last of the passengers exited and grabbed the handrail. A train like this didn’t have inertial negation. Even prepared for it, the sudden jolt almost made her lose her footing. On New Rome, a rail could go a thousand kilometers per hour or more and you’d never even feel it. This train couldn’t have been doing more than five hundred, and still it shook.

People had to make do with what they had, she supposed.

It took only a couple of minutes for the train to drop her at her stop on the other side of Beeroth. Gehenna only had a few chief cities—volcanic calderas covered half the planet—and Beeroth was the largest, so she’d started her search here. Somewhere on this planet she’d find the Sefer, and through it, proof she was right all along. Proof it hadn’t all been for nothing.

On exiting the station, Rachel headed straight for her hotel. She’d had enough excitement for one night. God, she needed a shower. The air made her skin feel grimy.

She stepped into the hotel airlock and waited for the whoosh of clean—or semi-clean, at least—air. If this place, the Sheik, was the nicest hotel on Gehenna, she didn’t want to see the dumps. It had a lobby that passed for clean, at least on this planet, and a bar. That was pretty much it for amenities.

Her breather hissed when she released its suction, waiting for the airlock to open. Actually, maybe she’d grab a drink before she headed up. It had been a long day.

The airlock door slid to the side and she strolled into the hotel, the knot in her shoulders finally releasing. Other guests stood at the front desk. No matter how pathetic this planet seemed, people still came here. Or maybe they were just from one of the other cities.

A man standing near the counter turned and looked right at her. His coat fell open, revealing his vest—and more importantly, the insignia on it. A man on bent knee. Redeemer.

Rachel reached for her MAG. The one that wasn’t working. Her breath caught in her throat.

The Redeemer pointed at her. “Surrender, khapiru! Or be judged!” He drew a stun baton from his coat. With a jerk it doubled in length, reaching almost two feet.

Rachel spun and threw herself back in the airlock. She smacked the buzzer and the door whooshed closed. The Redeemer ran for her, but not even he could override an airlock count. The man pressed his face against the glass panel and glared at her. Her heart beat so fast it felt like it would explode. Rachel reattached her breather and gave the fanatic the finger. If he caught her, a minor taunt would be the least of her worries.

The airlock opened. Rachel took off at a dead run. They were here, in her hotel. These weren’t some drug dealing thugs, these were Redeemers. They knew where she was staying, they knew what she was after. And they would not stop. Ever.

Angels damn them all.

She ran into the busiest street she could find. It was late, but she wasn’t alone. Dozens still walked the sidewalks, and hovers zoomed through the road itself. Still, she didn’t have much time at all. Where there was one Redeemer, there would be an entire Heart. Seven fanatics all willing to go to any lengths to catch her.

She paused outside a building bearing the sign of Manna Products. So the megacorp sold food even here. Rachel turned to look behind her. Men were already running in her direction, and if they hadn’t seen her yet, they would. They always did.

She activated the comm in her ear. “Get me the local Manna Products security office.”

Two seconds later a voice came over the comm. “Manna Products, how may—”

“Oh my God!” Rachel shouted. “There’s a bomb in the building! They, they… I heard them! Asheran terrorists said they’d blow it if—”

Rachel tore free her ear comm and crushed it. It would be useless now anyway. A corp like Manna Products would trace it in hours, maybe minutes. She threw it away. Seconds later, a stream of people spewed out of the building. Thousands of employees, all evacuating. It didn’t matter whether the execs believed the threat; the megacorp would never ignore it.

Rachel forced her way against the crowd and into the building. Let the damn Redeemers follow her in here. She wound her way through the halls, at first fighting the fleeing crowd, then joining them when she found a flow headed toward the parking garage in the basement.

Someone jostled her against the wall. People were screaming, pushing, crying to get out. She’d panicked a lot of people today. Yet another thing she’d probably rot in hell for.

As soon as she could, she dashed into the open garage and ran for the ramp. By the time the Redeemers sorted through this mess she’d be on the other side of the city.

A hovercar damn near ran her over as she scurried up the ramp. Rachel dove to the side, but didn’t bother cursing a driver who would never hear her. Pedestrians weren’t supposed to be on these ramps anyway. She stuck to the side and climbed out, then ran to the sidewalk on the far side of the building.

Her heart threatened to pound out of her chest. Cold sweat trickled down her scalp. She’d left most of her gear in that hotel. The Redeemers had it now.

Her shoulder hurt where she’d been smashed into the wall. She prodded it gingerly while making her way through an alley. That would leave a bruise.

She’d have to find a place to lay low. How had they found her so quickly? Of course they were looking for her, of course they didn’t want her to find the Sefer… though you’d think a religious group like that would want to uncover lost Angel relics.

They always said it was outside human prevue. Whatever that meant.

But she was kidding herself if she thought she could work with them hounding her every step. Maybe it was all a mistake to come here. Maybe she should have listened when David told her to stop her foolish pursuit. Maybe she should have listened to everyone. If the whole universe thought you were crazy, maybe it wasn’t them.

She waved down a cab. The Gehennan hovercars didn’t fly much more than a few meters off the street, so it was easy to spot the cab with its sleek chrome finish—albeit one marred by soot. The driver popped the door and she hunkered down in the back seat.

“A hotel in the north district. A nice one.”

A headache started to form behind her eyes. The Redeemers always did that to her. She could almost hear her father lecturing her now, about the sins of modern people, about the Covenant. Three Commandments the Angels gave mankind, three rules they required, in exchange for saving humanity from the Adversary.

Rachel shook her head. The Commandments were one thing—a questionable one at best—but the Redeemers were another. They believed everything the Angels had ever said about being God’s Voice, and they took it to the extreme. Angels gave us what technology we were meant to have, they said. Angels told us how to live.

But the Angels were gone, and good riddance. For all of recorded history, the Angels had ruled absolutely and without tolerating questions. Anyone who troubled them wound up in a place like Gehenna. And then the Angels just left humanity. The Angels left, and some people expected mankind to take everything they ever said as gospel from God’s mouth. But that kind of thinking had held mankind back for the last six hundred years.

Oh, rumors abounded about Asherah, and the experiments that went on there. Some said they even violated the Commandments. She’d been to Triangulum, but never Asherah itself. Still, it was hard to believe cyborgs walked the streets in broad daylight there.

Regardless, nothing Asherah had would compare to the value of lost Angel tech. The Redeemers might curse it, call it blasphemous, but the other corps in the Conglomerate paid her very well for her finds. If she found the Sefer, it could lead her to the Ark. And that wouldn’t just earn her enough money for ten lifetimes, it would change the fate of humanity. It could finally help them silence the echoes of the Angels’ millennia-spanning tyranny.

She couldn’t let the Redeemers win. The future of humanity depended on it.

CHAPTER THREE

Approximately a hundred and fifty years ago, seven megacorps joined together to form the Conglomerate. What began as an effort to create a united front against economic pressures from the Mizraim Empire has evolved into an effective governmental body with the power to challenge the greatest empires in the universe. If there is one thing to learn from the Conglomerate, it is that wealth is power—that all worlds are enslaved to economics. And Galizur, as a board member for Quasar Industries, the greatest of the megacorps, was like a king out of legend. Powerful, duplicitous, and far better as a friend than a foe.

The Royal Palace didn’t look like a hotel worthy of the name, with its ash-stained exterior and poorly lit interior, but Rachel didn’t have time to be choosy. She might have evaded the Redeemers for a little while, but now that they knew she was in Beeroth, it was only a matter of time. Shit, Jeremiah might even come for her himself. Wouldn’t that be nice?

If she went with him, would he let her take it all back? Say it was all a mistake? And if he would allow it, could she do so? After all she’d done, no one even cared about her efforts. So why should she? She sighed. Because she couldn’t just sit back and let long-absent Angels map out humanity’s future.

Rachel scanned the hotel lobby twice to make sure no one was watching her before she strode to the counter. “I need a room. One with access to the Mazzaroth.”

The old woman sitting at the desk rolled her eyes and pointed at the screen in front of Rachel. “All the rooms have Mazzaroth access. Just pick one.”

Well, at least there was that—even if the place was a sorry excuse for a palace. Rachel paged through the room options, then tapped one on the second floor. Low enough she could get out in a hurry, but not on the ground floor where it would be easier to corner her unaware. The screen flashed a nightly rate, and Rachel deposited a kesitah chip into the slot that would cover a week.

A moment later another slot ejected a key card. Rachel tried not to smirk. Even the Sheik was still using key cards, so she shouldn’t be surprised this place would too. Of course, when she’d checked into the Sheik, at least she’d had a bag. Now she had nothing but the clothes on her back, some money, and a MAG that didn’t work.

Rachel hiked up the stairs, barely even glancing at the lift. Too easy to get trapped in one of those. Sure, if she had to go more than three or four flights of stairs, she’d use one, but no reason to chance it here.

Upstairs she swiped the key card along the scanner and the door to her room cracked ajar. The bed in the corner looked clean enough, and there was a large screen on the wall. Which was all she really needed.

With a sigh she collapsed on the bed. Her head throbbed from the excitement. What would be better, sleep or a shower? God, she was feeling nasty. A quick shower… but first she just needed to rest her eyes a bit.

Rachel woke with a start. She was in a hotel room. Beeroth. No window, so no idea what time it was. For a moment she rubbed her face, then swept her tangled hair back from her face with a groan. “Mazzaroth on.”

A slight buzz and crackle was the only indication the screen had come to life. Of course, with those two words, she’d accessed quantum storage, connecting her through the Conduit relays to everywhere in the Local Group. “Local time?”

“0500 hours, Gehenna standard time,” the computer said, the voice dry and boring. Generic user access.

Rachel stood and stripped off her sweaty clothes. Please God say this place has automatic laundry. Rachel stepped into the washroom and spotted the familiar unit. It actually had a slot for a kesitah chip. How cute, they charged for laundry. With a sigh, she deposited the smallest imprinted kesitah she had and threw the clothes in.

“Shower on. Hot.”

Nothing happened. She rolled her eyes and tapped the dials manually. Water spurted out, steam rising in an instant. For a heartbeat, the heat shocked her, then she let it relax her muscles. She’d probably benefit from a proper massage, but… no. It’d make her too vulnerable.

By the time she stepped out of the shower her clothes were dried and pressed. “Mazzaroth personal access,” she said, slipping her shirt back on. “Rachel Jordan, code Seraphim 786.”

The screen in the bedroom flickered again, then spoke. “Hello, Rachel.” The voice had switched over to her personal settings, that of a sultry man who reminded her of David, just a little. Which was probably her way of torturing herself, but her father always said she loved trouble.

“Contact Galizur at Quasar Industries. Secure channel.”

“One moment,” the man’s voice said, with that bare hint of a Calnehian accent. Like David. Another thing her crusade had cost her. Sometimes she imagined him welcoming her back. If she found it, found the Ark, what would he say? Welcome home, lass? No. He’d never understand.

Rachel buttoned her shirt and sat on the bed. Now that her hair was clean, it really needed a comb. Of course, she’d lost her comb at the Sheik and there was no way she’d trust one out of this place.

Galizur was thousands of light years away in Andromeda, but the Conduit would allow near instantaneous communication via quantum relays. The Conduit itself was really a series of bridges, wormholes some called them, the Angels had built to connect the galaxies. They had some kind of inherent time frame shifting that no human really understood, designed to keep communication from violating one’s light cone. The Second Commandment said “Man shall adhere to the bounds of the Conduit,” which probably meant don’t try to fuck with causality. Any wormhole allowed faster-than-light travel, meaning you could effectively travel back in time. She could see why the Angels wouldn’t want that. As far as the bounds of the Conduit... some believed beyond them you could reach other universes. Why would the Angels restrict them unless that were true?

The screen flickered, revealing a man sitting in a dark room. He leaned forward just enough to reveal his deep wheat-colored skin and black hair. Rachel had never seen him face-to-face, but they’d done a fair amount of business together. Some humans had retained features distinct from the old cultures of Eden, but most had interbred so heavily that old concepts of ethnicity were hopelessly blurred. She couldn’t even guess about Galizur’s heritage.

“Miss Jordan,” he said.

Not a hint of emotion on his face, and she couldn’t read him over the Mazzaroth. “Do you have any idea what kind of hellhole this planet is?”

Again, no change on his face. “You went there of your own free choice.”

Bastard. “Because you fed me a lead about the Sefer. Thugs and drug dealers and toxic atmosphere I can handle, but now the Redeemers are here! You know what they’ll do if they catch me.” Wash away her sins. Which was code for forced indoctrination—brainwashing. All she was, all she believed, would be stripped away. A combination of drugs, subliminal conditioning, and psionic torture would destroy the Rachel Jordan that was and leave a hollow shell in her place.

A tremor ran through her chest, and she barely managed to still it. For a moment she shut her eyes, focusing on her breathing.

They would do that to her. People who should have loved her, should have listened to her, would instead destroy her. If she’d only tried harder, if she’d said the right thing, maybe Jeremiah would have listened.

“This place is a cesspool,” she said at last, without opening her eyes.

“Quasar Industries has paid you very handsomely for relics in the past, Miss Jordan. If you cannot handle this assignment, though…”

She snapped her eyes open and rose from the bed. “I didn’t say that! But how in the holy universe am I supposed to find the Sefer with these people after me? I can take care of myself, but I’m not a soldier.” Maybe she should have asked David to teach her Merkabah. He probably would have refused. That fighting style was supposedly reserved for Sentinels. She was a decent shot with a MAG and had a few basic unarmed combat moves, but Redeemers were professional combatants.

“Then perhaps you need a soldier, or at least a warrior to protect you,” Galizur said.

Rachel paced. “Yeah, great. Where would I get one of those?”

Galizur paused a moment. Was he looking at something else on his screen? “A place like Gehenna is rife with mercenaries. You have the money to hire one. If you find the Sefer Raziel, I’ll even reimburse the expense.”

He was right, of course. Without some protection, she’d be dead or worse in days. Unless she was willing to flee. She could make it to the spaceport, maybe slip off world. Once she reached the Conduit Gate at the edge of the system she’d be home free. All she’d have to do is tell Jeremiah she’d given it all up—he might believe her. The thought made her hands shake.

She could even try to fix things with David. If he knew she’d given this all up, he would listen. She knew he would.

The only price would be giving up the future. Letting mankind stay where it was, mired in superstition and traditions enforced by long-absent autocrats. The Sefer Raziel could lead her to the Ark… It could change the course of history. Finally allow mankind to resume the path of advancement rather than to stagnate.

She sighed. “Where do I find one I can trust?”

Galizur’s gaze remained unwavering. And damn unnerving. But he was one of the top execs at a megacorp, so what did she expect? “There’s a mercenary with a reputation for efficiency in your city. Name of Ezekiel Knight. He takes jobs out of local clubs. Try the Yetzer Hara.”

“Can I trust him?”

“You know better than that. Use your own judgment—I’ve never met him. But reports say he’s good, if expensive.”

Pricy could be a good sign, too. Rachel was tired of being scared. A bodyguard might make the Redeemers think twice about trying to come after her. Especially if he happened to be large and well-armed.

“Have you made any progress?” Galizur asked.

“I was interrupted.”

“If the Redeemers know what you seek—”

Rachel threw up her hands. “I know that! But I can’t find a lost relic without asking questions.”

“Very well. But remember, your time may be short.” At that, the line cut and her screen went blank.

And she’d forgotten to ask him about the damn MAG.

CHAPTER FOUR

September 22nd, 3096 EY

In truth, I’d known the Redeemers hunted me for some time. My past with them undoubtedly placed me on their watch list, but beyond that, sooner or later word was bound to reach them of what I sought. The Redeemers are perhaps the most insidious of the seven megacorps, because they alone are not driven by profit, but by zeal. They mask aggression and a desire to dominate in the cloak of righteousness, declaring any who oppose them khapiru.

Yetzer Hara meant something like “evil nature”. So it didn’t surprise her to find the club was an underground bunker filled with men and women who looked like they’d as soon gut her as talk to her. From the moment the airlock opened, she found herself the subject of lewd stares and appraising eyes. Even inside, the faint whiff of sulfur lingered, but honestly, she was getting used to it.

A man passed right behind, brushing her ass in a way that could have been an accident. Of course, it wasn’t. Rachel almost choked. Son of a bitch thought he could just cop a feel? On New Rome no one would dare touch a woman like that. But she wasn’t ready to make a scene. Not quite. Instead, she eyed the punk. A scar ran down the man’s cheek. Hadn’t he ever heard of nanobot regeneration? Or maybe a backwater world like this would even consider that a violation of the First Commandment.

Rachel strolled the room a bit, watching the crowd. Some had MAGs strapped to hips and thighs, and most had knives. Probably more than she could see.

When she was sure she had the lay of the place, she strode to the bar. The man behind it smiled at her with bad teeth. Clearly no nanobots for him, either.

“A shot of whatever your best is,” she said.

He poured a small glass, and she downed the burning liquor in one swig. It was all fire and no taste. Probably something local she’d rather not know the details of. She slipped him a kesitah imprinted with a hefty amount. His eyes lit up a bit when he pressed his thumb onto the chip to check the reading.

“I’m looking for someone named Knight.”

The bartender smirked and cocked his head at a man sitting alone in a corner. He was young, maybe younger than her, with wavy blond hair framing his face. He wore a long black leather coat, buttoned down to his waist. For that matter, his boots and gloves were black leather, too. Nanomesh armor? A little chromatically impaired, but he had that tough-guy vibe. Still, not as brawny as she’d been hoping.

She left the glass on the bar and strolled over to the blond man’s table, then sat across from him. “Ezekiel Knight?”

He snorted. “Just Knight, lady.”

Fine. To the point, then. “I’m looking for protection.”

“Then you’re on the wrong planet. In fact, no matter what you want, this is the wrong planet.”

If only she was so lucky. “Are you interested in a job, or was I misinformed, Knight?”

Knight leaned forward, looking her in the eye. His eyes were gray-blue, almost silvery. “You’re an off-worlder. Mizraim?”

Rachel folded her arms. “I can pay you in kesitahs, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“No way. Mizraim credits.”

He wanted to be paid in foreign currency? Rachel raised an eyebrow. “How much?”

He looked her up and down a moment, then leaned back in his chair and folded his arms. “Seventy thousand.”

Rachel laughed. “You’re out of your mind.”

“Could be.” He shrugged. “But I’m worth it.”

No bodyguard was worth that. “Thirty thousand. For a month.”

“Lady, even if you were throwing yourself into the deal, that wouldn’t be enough.”

Her mind tingled with the rising sense of his arousal. He might have been cute, but she wasn’t about to put up with a pompous ass like that. She stood. “Not even if you were paying me the thirty thousand, you greedy, over-styled lust cadet.”

Knight spread his hands. “Maybe I am.” He pointed over her shoulder. “And maybe you’re in some deep shit, or you wouldn’t be here.”

Three men were moving in on her. Redeemers. Dammit, she’d been too preoccupied with this little punk. How dare he treat her like a prostitute? But without him, there was no way she could fight three Redeemers. Even if her MAG worked.

One more glance at the Redeemers. If they caught her, her life was finished. “Help me,” she said to Knight.

Other customers had risen and were stepping aside, clearly seeing trouble coming. And expectant for a show.

“Forty thousand,” she said, then glanced at the men. “Fifty thousand! It’s all I can get right now.”

Knight snickered and rose, stepping between her and the advancing Redeemers.

“Stand aside or be judged khapiru, citizen,” the Redeemer said. Same one who had trailed her from the Sheik.

God. This was going to be bad. Rachel slipped her breather from her pocket. She had to get to the airlock. The Redeemers might well kill Knight, but right now she had to think of herself.

Knight spread his hands and shook his head. A stun baton dropped into the lead Redeemer’s hand. The Redeemer swung.

Knight moved so fast Rachel wasn’t sure what happened. He had the Redeemer’s arm in one hand, the other hand crushing the fanatic’s windpipe. A lightning fast turn and Knight slammed the man’s head down on the metal table with a clang that resounded through the entire club.

Everything stopped.

Holy shit.

The breather hung limp in Rachel’s hand.

Holy shit. The Redeemer must be dead. A splatter of blood stained the table when he slid off it and onto the floor.

Then the room exploded into motion as if someone had flipped a switch. One Redeemer surged at Knight, baton in hand, while the other moved in on her. Dozens of other men and women armed themselves with bottles, chairs, or fists and joined in the chaos.

Rachel dove under a table and scampered away from the Redeemer as he tried to grab her. The man caught her leg and then screamed, a throwing knife appearing in his shoulder. He released her, and she caught a glimpse of Knight smirking and turning away.

Her new bodyguard leaped onto a chair, caught it between his legs, and kicked, somehow flinging it straight into the face of the charging Redeemer. Rachel pushed herself up and ran for the airlock. The Redeemer with the knife in his shoulder tackled her and she hit the ground hard, losing her breath.

The breather skittered across the club floor. By the time Rachel caught her wind, she had no idea where it had gone. The Redeemer pounded his fist into her ribs. Agony rocked them, and she whimpered. He was too strong.

His blood had covered her jacket, making it slick. She kicked him in the face, then slipped from his grasp, scrambling away. The man growled and extended his baton as he rose.

She looked to Knight. The other Redeemer was down, but two of the patrons had moved in on Knight. He caught the arm of one swinging a bottle, then swung his hand like a knife, one way then the other, hitting both men. He moved so quickly her eyes couldn’t quite track him. His palm crushed a man’s nose, and then he was beside her, slamming the Redeemer into the wall.

“Go!” Knight shouted. “Not a good place to be right now.”

“I lost my mask! I can’t—”

He grabbed her arm and shoved her toward the airlock. “The air won’t kill you right away. Go!”

The Redeemer Knight had shoved rose and advanced on him. He swung the baton. Knight dodged the blow like the other man moved in slow motion.

Rachel hit the buzzer for the airlock and it opened with a whoosh. “Knight!”

He caught the man’s wrist and spun around under his arm. With a twist he had the man on his knees, dropping the baton. Knight’s other hand fell like a blade on the Redeemer’s neck. Probably breaking it.

Knight stepped into the airlock with her and hit the buzzer to close it.

The fight continued in the club. She watched it numbly through the window. “There’ll be more of them.” She reached for her MAG. If only the damn thing was working.

“Put that away.”

“What?”

“The atmosphere interferes with the magnetic rails,” Knight said.

“That’s why it jammed? This is the latest model from QI, an Endbringer Mk 3. State of the art, and you’re telling me it’s not going to fire on this planet?” It wasn’t just broken, it was useless?

Knight turned to peer through the window outside, where a rain had started. The airlock whooshed open. In an instant, Rachel felt a burning in her sinuses. A heartbeat later her lungs were on fire. Knight seemed unaffected though he wore no breather.

“It might work. Or it might explode. I’d put it away. Stick close to me.”

He stepped out into the rain.

CHAPTER FIVE

MAGs—Magnetic Accelerator Guns—have long been the ubiquitous arms for civilians and private military contractors throughout the known universe. The design is simple, efficient, and lethal. An electromagnetic rail fires a miniature slug at supersonic velocities, capable of delivering enormous kinetic energy. And like most weapons, they are designed by Quasar Industries—Galizur’s company. It might have been nice of him to warn me they could fail so easily in the Gehennan atmosphere.

Rachel rushed out into the rain after Knight. Her body felt inflamed, sluggish, and her vision was blurred. Rain splattered the buildings around them and seemed to sizzle off the ground, creating steam that further stung her eyes.

With the ash-filled sky, she saw no moon or stars to illuminate the night. Only the dim flicker of street lights and glowing signs.

“Rachel Jordan,” a voice said through the slight distortion of a breather. “Submit now for judgment or risk execution.”

A Redeemer stood two dozen feet in front of her, stun baton pointed at her. Where had her bodyguard gone? She tried to run, but made it only a few steps before she was doubled over gasping. Trying to breathe out here was torture. She fell to her knees and raised her hands. Other Redeemers stepped from the shadows and began advancing.

She’d almost welcome the restraints they held if they gave her a breather.

Knight dropped out of the sky behind the Redeemer who had addressed her. He reached a hand around the man’s head and ripped off his breather, and must have hit him, because the Redeemer dropped to his knees. And then Knight was gone again, vanished into some shadows.

“Shoot the bastard,” one of Redeemers shouted. The remaining three Redeemers pulled MAGs and began stalking the alleys, hunting for Rachel’s would-be protector. She must have suddenly seemed less important.

One jumped at movement in an alley and tried to fire. His MAG jammed just like Rachel’s had.

She forced herself up and made a break for the street. If she could reach the monorail, they might have breathers.

Air.

Air was all that mattered.

Rapid retorts echoed from one of the MAGs, but he wasn’t shooting at her. She glanced over her shoulder in time to see Knight leap from one balcony to another, swinging under the rails like a gymnast, undeterred by the rain-slicked surfaces. He kicked off a wall and landed beside the Redeemer with the active MAG.

The man spun on Knight and fired. And Knight moved, his head bobbing out of the way. Rachel stopped dead, facing the fight. The man had just dodged a supersonic slug. Which was impossible.

Knight jabbed a throwing knife into the Redeemer’s eye and the man fell like a stone. Knight grabbed a pair of knives strapped to his legs and flung them at another Redeemer. The knives bounced off his armor and he kept running toward Knight, baton in one hand, MAG in the other.

The Redeemer pointed the MAG and then cursed. It must have jammed, too.

Rachel gasped, barely breathing. Her veins were on fire. She took off running again, every step sending lances of ice through her muscles.

A hand grabbed her and yanked her into an alley, then shoved her against a building. She struggled a heartbeat before she realized it was Knight. He pressed a breather onto her face and activated the suction. The device whirred, and fresh air began to filter through.

Rachel fell, almost in tears. She didn’t care how badly she’d scraped her palms as she coughed the burning poisons from her lungs.

Knight was gone again, vanished into the rain.

The water gathered in puddles around her. The rising steam still made her eyes water. Her skin was burning. Oh, Angels above, this was acid rain. Of course it was—the entire planet’s atmosphere was toxic. That burning was her skin being corroded, along with her only set of clothes.

She climbed to her feet and stuck her head around the corner. She caught sight of Knight disarming another Redeemer. The man fell when Knight kicked his knee out. Then Knight stomped on his head.

The sudden, sickening crack left a hollow in Rachel’s stomach. Brutal, almost beyond words.

What had Galizur said? A reputation for efficiency.

“Where are you?” the last Redeemer screamed. “Come out and fight like a man!”

At last Knight stepped out of the shadows and beneath a streetlight, advancing on the Redeemer with hands spread. “As you wish.”

From her hiding place, Rachel couldn’t see the Redeemer’s face, but she imagined him swallowing hard. The man backed away, stun baton ready. The Redeemer tried his MAG again. Nothing happened. “Shit!” he shouted, hurling the gun away. “I judge you khapiru!” He ran for Knight.

Knight dodged several blows like they were dancing. Lightning crackled from the baton, but it never touched Knight. He moved like he saw every attack long before it landed. Son of a bitch was toying with the Redeemer, wasn’t he?

“Knight!” Rachel shouted. “I have to get out of this rain.”

Knight dodged the next swing and came up under it, his fist slamming into the Redeemer’s throat. The man crumpled to the ground, grasping his neck for a breath he’d never take.

Knight stopped at the other bodies to retrieve his throwing knives, then jogged to her. “A little rain won’t harm you too much.”

“I still want out of it!”

He nodded. “Yeah. This way,” he said, ushering her toward the monorail.

“You just killed seven people,” she said when they neared. “You killed them. You were supposed to protect me, not—”

“I did protect you. Those men will never threaten you again.” He trotted down the steps into the monorail. “If we left them alive, what do you think they’d do? Come after you again, right?”

Ice filled her heart. Was that her own fear, or was she sensing his cold emotions? Almost afraid, she probed them. God, he really believed it, even if a buried hint of fear underlay his words.

And worse, he was right. Redeemers did not stop.

“They seemed pretty intent on taking you along, rich girl. What’d you do?”

Rachel shook her head. She was paying him, not the other way around. “It doesn’t matter. But you didn’t have to kill—”

Knight spun on her and shoved her against the station wall. He leaned in so close his hair tickled her cheek. “This isn’t some Mizraim paradise, rich girl. This is Gehenna. You leave enemies behind you, sooner or later you’ll have more enemies in front of you than you can handle.”

Rachel grit her teeth and pushed him away. “Fine.”

Knight shook his head. “You want protection? Sure seems like you need it.” He glanced at an arriving rail. “But you’re right. Why should I care what they want? I only care about what’s in your bank account.”

Rachel started for the monorail. Could she in good conscience continue to associate with a man who killed so casually? But he was right, she needed him. The Redeemers wouldn’t have stopped. Of course, losing an entire Heart would likely make them even more determined. If she sent Knight away now, the Redeemers might kill her without even waiting for her surrender.

“You’re a Smogger, aren’t you? That’s how you can breathe the atmosphere here.” In the Days of Glory the Angels had created several subspecies of humanity designed for varying habitats. Knight’s ancestors must have been ash-worlders—Smoggers. Like David.

Knight shrugged. “You have your secrets. I have mine.”

Fair enough. “Come on,” she said. “I need to get back to my hotel.” And shower off this acid rain.

Knight walked beside her, just slightly behind. “We should get you some armor if this is going to continue.”

So his coat was nanomesh. Maybe one of the slugs had even hit him. She paused. “How in the holy universe did you dodge a MAG slug?”

Knight snickered and kept walking toward the train. “I didn’t, rich girl. I dodged the trajectory of where he was pointing it.”

“I’ve never seen anyone move that fast. Are you cybered?”

Knight stopped, then slowly turned on her. He walked back, menace in his steps. She’d seen a vid of a tiger stalking prey once. The cat moved like that. Knight circled around to her side. “Did you just accuse me of violating the First Commandment?”

Rachel swallowed. Apparently even on Gehenna, that was a hefty accusation. But she had to know. The First Commandment, “Man shall not alter the form of man,” was held the most sacred throughout the universe. Angels outright forbade humans from altering their genetic structure—though they’d done it themselves to create the Races of Man—or enhancing themselves with cybernetics. But there were always rumors of khapiru—outcasts—hunted down by Redeemers for breaking that law. Some said such violations ran rampant on Asherah. But out here on Gehenna…

Rachel forced herself to look straight into the eyes of this tiger. He was a killing machine. What if he were literally part machine? “Have you violated it?”

“No.” It came out as a growl. And she didn’t really blame him.

“Then how do you—”

“Training. Do you want my services or not, rich girl?”

“Stop calling me that. My name is Rachel, and I’m not rich.” Not really, though she did well enough on what QI paid her for relics.

“All right, Rachel. But you can afford me?”

She shut her eyes. She had to afford him. It was the only way she’d live long enough to find the Sefer. “Come on.”

CHAPTER SIX

The first time I met Knight I found him to be arrogant, self-centered, and detestable. The first time I saw him fight, I decided I’d best keep such opinions to myself. Hard to believe someone could manage such preternatural reflexes without cybernetics or genetic enhancements. But he claimed not to have violated the First Commandment, and I had no means to challenge his claim.

Rachel swiped the key card and let herself into her room at the Royal Palace. Knight held her back by the shoulder and stuck his head in the door first, then waved her inside. At least he took the bodyguard thing seriously.

“Wait out here,” she said, and slipped into the washroom. The acid rain had corroded her clothes a little, but since she had no others, thinning clothes would have to do. She dropped them in the laundry for the second time today, then took a quick shower to wash the burning off her skin. The initial sting gave way to a soothing warmth.

Best she not take too much time, with Knight waiting out there. Quite possibly imagining her in here. And she wasn’t sure how she felt about that. He was powerful, fit. Fast and deadly. A tiger. She prayed he was no empath. Given the attraction he obviously felt to her, if he had any idea she was even a little hot for him—and she knew what the warmth in her abdomen meant, much as she might like to deny it—she’d never hear the end of it.

Shit, maybe she should just bed him and get it over with. A simple nanotab could ensure she didn’t get pregnant and… God, what the void was she thinking? It was just the adrenaline. It did this to people. There was no way in the holy universe she’d let that happen.

She switched off the water, activated the dryer, and threw her clothes back on. Knight was sitting on her bed, seeming to stare off into nothing. His eyes glanced at her when she entered, but he didn’t turn his head.

“Do you want to shower?” she asked.

He smirked, like he might make some smart remark, but then he just rose and ducked into the washroom. Rachel blew out a long breath and sat on the bed. Who had she let into her room? The man was clearly very dangerous, and probably a bit off rotation. But he had saved her, too.

He came out a few minutes later, his long coat draped over his arm. He wore a sleeveless vest, probably nanomesh armor itself, she’d guess, the slate gray of most buildings around here. His exposed arms were very, very toned. Rock hard, ready in an instant. She shook herself, trying to shift her focus. This man was a killer—and that’s why he had a body like this.

But it wasn’t just the strength of his muscles that made him so deadly. Something allowed him to react much faster than he should have.

“Are you a Psych, Knight? Is that how you moved like that, sensing what they intend even when they start to act?”

He tossed the coat on the bed, then sat down beside her. “If I was psychic, do you think I’d be doing this kind of shit?”

Why not? She was. “It’s a fair question. There are five million people on this planet. It stands to reason some fifty thousand of you should be Psychs, and at least five thousand should be powerful enough to—”

“Not on this planet, Rachel. Psionic genes don’t run strongly here.”

Rachel brushed her fingers through her hair, pausing for a moment. “Then how would you navigate the Conduit, without Psychs?”

“We don’t.”

So the people on this world were trapped here, unless an outside Psych came to take them away, or they could afford passage. It made a terrible, sadistic sense. This was a prison once. Even if the inmates could build ships capable of reaching the Conduit Gate, without Psychs, they could never navigate it. They’d enter the Conduit and be lost forever. And to try to leave a system without the Conduit—the journey would take years.

God, they were stuck in this hellhole. Some of them had probably never committed any crime, and the Angels had damned them here for the sins of their ancestors. She stilled the urge to brush Knight’s cheek with her hand—he was no lost child. Instead she sighed.

Knight smirked again. “Figured out the Angels’ great joke on us, huh?” Palpable frustration leapt off him, clouding her mind until she couldn’t help but share it.

What could she say? What had been done to these people was the Angels’ fault, just like so much else in human history. Their perfect society in the Days of Glory had no tolerance for anything on the fringes. And people like Knight were punished for things that had happened hundreds of years before they were born. She had to believe they’d have known the inmates would be trapped, that their descendants would be trapped. Or maybe they just didn’t care. Damnation via apathy. It made her want to scream.

“Why are those people after you?” he said after a moment. “I can protect you best if I know who they are and what they want.”

Rachel stood and paced in front of him, as she’d often done as a lecturer. She knew it was a nervous habit, but she’d never been able to break it. “The Redeemers. Know about them?” Knight just stared at her. “One of the seven megacorps of the Conglomerate. Unlike the other corps, though, they don’t make anything or offer any services. They’re the self-appointed enforcers of Angel doctrine. Any deviation from what they perceive as the wishes of the Angels, and they name you khapiru.”

Knight shrugged. “So they enforce the Covenant?”

“Officially the other corps support them, because officially they enforce the Covenant, yes. Unofficially, they persecute anyone doing anything out of line with what they think the Angels would have wanted.”

“And?” He spread his hands and raised his brows. “Have you broken a Commandment?” A smirk spread over his face. “Need help with the Third?”

Cocky little punk was still offering to take her to bed? Maybe it was best to just ignore it—lest he realize she’d actually considered it. “I’m an Angelologist. I study the Angels, in particular their technology, and search for things they didn’t leave us in the Vanishing.”

Knight shrugged again. “These Redeemers sound like the good guys to me. Not that I care, as long as you’re paying.” He raised his eyebrow. “You are going to pay me, right? A little up front sounds only fair, considering the events of tonight.”

“Yes, I’m going to pay you! Is that all you care about? I’m talking about the future of the human race. We are enslaved to traditions forced on us by alien beings claiming it was in our best interest.” She paused for effect. “It’s been more than three thousand years since the Exodus. We still have no idea where Eden is, and we’ve barely advanced technologically from what they gave us all those years ago. The only progress we’ve made at all has come after the Vanishing, and people like the Redeemers fight us every step!”

Knight sat straighter, scowling. “Some rich girl from the Mizraim Empire, and you think you know what it means to be enslaved. These beings you call aliens came from God to save us from the Adversary. I doubt God cares about this place, but you seem to want to make the Angels out as despots. Trust me. I’ve seen real tyrants.”

Rachel resumed her pacing. “But all that history you’re talking about, the Adversary destroying Eden and the Angels saving us, that’s history they gave us in the Codex. Meaning you believe it because they told you to believe. Because your ancestors believed—”

“Everyone believes it. Someone tried to drive the human race to extinction three thousand years ago. Are you saying it’s not true?”

Rachel pointed at him. “I don’t know. That’s the problem. We only know what they told us about the past. We almost went extinct? Well, now there are trillions of us, spread across more than thirty galaxies. All we know for sure is that the Angels were tyrants, Knight. Their word was law, and that’s all there was to it.” They took away humanity’s God-given right to decide their own destiny, and no one seemed to care!

“Makes sense if God sent them.” Another goddamn shrug.

She scoffed. “They said He did. We have to take their word for it.”

“So you want the Word of God direct from His mouth?” Knight rose. “That’s a tall order.” He almost, almost glared at her. She could feel irritation wafting off him, though it was hard to say how much he really cared about religion.

Rachel scowled. She was a fool to think this man would understand her when no one else had. A few students, here and there, might have grasped the things she’d tried to teach. Those precious few almost made it worthwhile. Most people just couldn’t open their eyes to reality. You had to understand the past—not cling blindly to it. And she’d lost her place, lost her chance to teach because of that blind obedience that permeated Mizraim. And apparently beyond.

“Knight… You have to understand—”

“I don’t have to. You’re free to believe whatever off rotation nonsense you want, as long as I get paid.”

So that was it? He didn’t want to be enlightened. The apathy was almost worse than blindness through faith. And she was stuck with him. He was all she had here.

Rachel yanked a credit chip from her jacket and thrust it at him. “Ten thousand, up front.”

“Then you’ve got yourself some protection from Redeemers, or whoever else you’ve manage to piss off. Which is probably a lot of people with that spiel.”

If he only knew. Two years ago she’d been a lecturer at New Rome University. Youngest professor on the Days of Glory. But neither the faculty nor most of the students had liked hearing the Days of Glory might not have been all that glorious. For everything the Angels had given mankind, they’d demanded something in return.

Eden probably had existed. People had to come from somewhere. And no history debated that something had attacked the human homeworld. But even if she took it as a given the Angels had selflessly rescued mankind from extinction—after something like seven billion people had died—it didn’t permit them to rule an autocratic theocracy for the next two and a half millennia. Of course, most of the people who heard her lectures didn’t see it that way. They believed what they had been told to believe.

If she had to guess, hearing she’d been kicked out of NRU had probably quite disappointed her father.

But nothing would compare to his dejection, his rage when she refused to join him in the Redeemers. Rachel was fifteen when Jeremiah had joined their father on that path. And they had always thought she’d follow. But they had never understood her. Even now, the thought of his face clenched her heart. That look of betrayal when she left home—that look would haunt her forever.

But Quasar Industries hadn’t cared who wanted her dead. Jobless and scorned by the academic community, she’d fled straight to Galizur. And he’d given her the chance to earn a living and change the future. And she was damn well going to take that chance. Because one day, her father, Jeremiah, and even David would look back and see she’d been right.

CHAPTER SEVEN

September 23rd, 3096 EY

I have acquired a protector, after a fashion, who may allow me to continue down this path. However, despite his actions, or perhaps because of them, I have no reason to believe the Redeemers will stop. Their membership in the Conglomerate is shaky at best, but because of their reach and support throughout the universe, no other megacorp truly wants to question them. Go up against them and risk being named khapiru—no. Who would take such a risk? So instead of hiring a Shiza Security team, I find myself with a local Gehennan.

Funny how much less intimidating the Babel Bazaar seemed with Knight at her side. He didn’t say much while they walked, which was just as well. When he did speak he had a tendency to piss her off, and she needed a level head.

On the other side of the breezeway she spotted a flashing sign for Calnehian food. She’d never see anything from Calneh without thinking of David. He might have spent his young adult life on New Rome, same as her, but he’d never quite lost the accent or culture of that ash-world. Still, Rachel could never pass up the chance to sample some new dishes.

“You’re meeting your informant here?” Knight asked.

“No, I’m meeting my dinner here.” The door slid open, and Rachel stepped inside. “Come on. What’ll you have?”

“I’m not wasting my money on this place.” His eyes were scanning the half-full establishment, searching for some threat.

Rachel scowled. “I’m buying.”

Knight glanced at her. “In that case I’ll have steak.”

Rachel sat at a table, trying not to glare at him. Even she knew they didn’t raise livestock on this planet, and imported steak would probably cost a week’s rent at the Royal Palace. But she’d offered.

She tapped the display for steak, then selected salmon for herself. Most of these places had underground fish tanks, so at least they’d be fresh.

The meal came after about fifteen minutes of awkward silence. She’d tried making conversation with Knight, but he kept his eyes on everyone but her. She couldn’t even get a read on his emotions. So when her food arrived, she dug in and pretended she was eating alone.

Knight pulled off his gloves to eat, revealing several scars on his hands. Rachel tried not to stare. Maybe they really didn’t use nanobot regeneration on this planet.

He greedily devoured the steak then licked his lips. “Who are you meeting?”

Rachel leaned forward. “Her name’s Ariel. She’s somewhere on the second sub-level, but I don’t know her and I need to find her. She may have information crucial to my mission.”

“Right. To save the human race from its own ineptitude. Sure.”

Rachel ground her teeth and bit back any response.

“Give me money for bribes. I’ll find her.”

“I have done this before,” she said.

“Fine. Then you find her.”

She would. She’d been doing this work for a while now. Still, the punk was from around here. He’d know the place, and probably feel right at home with the seedy crowd. The truth was, he’d get them there faster, which would get her away from Gehenna faster.

With a muttered curse, she pulled a handful of kesitahs from her jacket. “Here. You should know, a guy down here is probably looking to get even with me.”

Knight caught her eyes for a moment. “For what?”

“Kneeing him in the groin and refusing his drugs.”

Now he looked right at her. “And you’re just telling me this now?”

Rachel grinned. “I brought you along for a reason.”

“Yeah, because you’ve apparently managed to rile up half the human race. So what was it, Mammon?”

Oh God, please don’t let Knight be a user. The last thing she needed was an addict bodyguard going off rotation. Further off rotation. “Yes…”

“Does he know who you are?”

Rachel shook her head. “No. He just called me long hair.”

Knight rose, motioning her to stay put. He went back out into the bazaar, and a few moments later returned with a head scarf. He tossed it to her. Plain brown, and hardly fashionable, but she’d seen others on this planet wearing the same.

“Better if you cut your hair, too,” he said.

“How about you cut yours?” She stood and wrapped the scarf around her head.

Knight turned and slipped out of the restaurant, and Rachel followed. He paused at a few merchant stalls, whispering questions she didn’t quite catch, and handing out her kesitahs like they were free.

The man thought she was made of money.

Eventually, Knight led her down the stairs to the next sub-level, where he continued handing out her money. After the third time, Rachel was about to complain when he pulled her down one of the side halls. He stopped at an unmarked door and knocked twice. A moment later the door slid open, and Knight stepped inside.

Rachel followed. The room was dark, but she could see two big men, each with long knives. Beyond, sitting at a table with the room’s only light, a woman watched it all with little apparent interest.

“Ariel?” Rachel asked.

The woman shrugged.

Shit, what was that server’s name? “Judy sent me. I need to buy some information. I hear you’re the place to go.”

“Depends what you want to know and how much you can pay.”

Rachel glanced again at the two men still brandishing knives. Knight was beside her, but he made no move to look threatening. Of course, if he did act, it would probably mean murder.

“I’ve got plenty of kesitahs. I can even have Mizraim credits transferred to an account of your choice. The question is, do you have anything worth it?”

Ariel beckoned her closer, and the two bodyguards stepped aside. Rachel sat across the table from Ariel. She wished Knight stood close enough to see, but looking over her shoulder would make her seem vulnerable. She had to come at these negotiations from a position of strength, or a woman like this would walk away with a planet before Rachel knew it.

Rachel folded her hands. “You know the Sefer Raziel?”

Ariel nodded. “Supposedly the Angel Raziel recorded the secrets of his people in a book, a bequeathal to mankind that was lost in the Vanishing.”

“I’m going to find it.”

“You and millions of others.”

Rachel leaned forward. Ariel was holding back. She felt it dripping off the woman. “Tell me what you know.”

“Thirty thousand kesitahs.” Ariel’s smile was smug, but compared to Knight’s fee that was spare change. If she had any idea what Rachel had paid her bodyguard, she’d probably have asked for five times that sum.

Rachel unstrapped her belt and pulled out kesitah chips she’d imprinted with five thousand each. She placed them on the table in front of Ariel, who pressed her thumb onto one, then nodded.

“Word is, an off-world organization has come here searching for it, too. Recently. They call themselves the Lazarus Group. They’ve been on this planet for the last two years, and have been traveling all over, asking questions from people like me.”

“Did you help them, too?”

“You’re not paying me for that information.”

Of course not. “Where can I find them?”

“You’re not paying me for that, either.”

Rachel rose, hands pressed on the table. “I’m paying you to tell me all you know about the Sefer!”

At her outburst, the two bodyguards raised their knives. Rachel was suddenly aware of the twenty-centimeter long blades, dangerously close to her back. She turned, slowly, looking over her shoulder. One of the men grinned. Beyond him, Knight’s hands drifted to his thighs. He had a half dozen throwing knives strapped horizontally to the outside of each leg.

With a slight shake of her head, she called him off. His hands didn’t relax, but his eyes spoke his understanding. Rachel turned back to Ariel. “Excuse me. I believe we had an arrangement, and it’s in both of our interests that you help me.” She tossed one more kesitah on the table.

Ariel took it, pressed it, and then pocketed it. “All I know about the Lazarus Group is they have a base somewhere on this planet, probably not in this city, and they’re interested in the old Angel eugenics projects.”

The eugenics projects? The Angels had created subspecies of humanity, even Psychs, but for humans to meddle with the bloodlines was a violation of the First Commandment. Which meant these people were willing to ignore doctrine for their agenda, just like her. The question was, did they share her agenda, or have their own?

Rachel would be the first to admit Angel law against eugenics and genetic engineering may have stifled human potential. It didn’t mean these people would be up to no good. God only knew what hell could break loose if Sentinels learned what was going on—or Redeemers.

“And that’s it?” Rachel said.

“That’s it.”

“Then I’m leaving.”

“Good idea.”

Rachel backed away, gingerly stepping between the bodyguards. Knight followed her out into the hall, and she pulled the head scarf around her tighter.

“I definitely need to buy some armor while we’re here,” she said. Those knives were almost the size of swords.

“Wouldn’t have helped much against those,” Knight said. “Monofilament edged. They’d cut through even nanomesh.”

Rachel shuddered and headed for the stairs. She’d seen enough of the Babel Bazaar for one night. Perhaps for one lifetime. Knight followed, and soon they reached the airlock.

She pressed on her breather and pushed the buzzer.

“What now?” Knight said. “We can’t find this Lazarus Group without more information.”

True. They’re on the planet wasn’t exactly much to go on. But the name of the group might be. There were people who had access to vast amounts of information not available to civilians. Part of her was afraid to ask, of course. But, then, it was for the good of humanity. And she’d keep telling herself that was the only reason to call him.

The airlock buzzed open.

“I know someone who might be able to help.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Though we might flee to the farthest reaches of the universe, we cannot escape ourselves. Mac was more than three million light years away from me, and still I turned to him. He had walked out on me—or maybe I’d left him. Funny, I was no longer sure. And still, I could think of no one I’d trust more.

The Milky Way Galaxy was so deep in Mizraim territory the crew of the Logos took their assignment as a vacation. Indeed, chasing Mammon smugglers from one end of the galaxy to the other didn’t present much of a challenge, which gave him time to think. Which may not have been what he most needed.

Leah snorted at some joke she’d made, and David smiled, pretending to share her merriment. A few months ago she’d made Chief Medical Officer on the Logos, the first time he’d seen the Amphie since Sentinel Academy on Hazaroth. Strong as his psionic gifts were, he wasn’t much of an empath, certainly not a telepath, so he’d probably never figure out what the lass had been saying—best to just smile and nod.

“Really, David,” she said, “are you even listening? You’re usually a bit more… verbose.”

He shook his head. Leah was always a bit too perceptive, and he’d tuned out not only the rest of the mess hall, but his meal companion for the day. “Sorry, lass. Just wondering why we’re not on the border. Who knows what Asherah is up to?” He smiled, to take the edge off the words, and Leah returned it, even if reluctantly.

“You know that incident was a long time ago.” She spread her webbed fingers, then must have seen him look at them, because she placed them under the table. Leah had silky black hair and dark wheatish skin—an attractive woman—but she always seemed a bit shy about being an Amphie. “Why do you take your meals here, anyway?”

As senior officers they could eat in the officer’s lounge, in private. But David always ate with the crew. He may have been second-in-command on a Sentinel warship, but he’d been one of the lower officers, too. Every Sentinel on this ship, every Sentinel in the force, was a credit to the uniform. They were the finest fighting force in the history of mankind. And he had no reason to limit himself to the upper echelons of the crew.

“I like to be seen.”

“A power play against the captain?”

David glowered. “Of course not. Don’t even say something like that. Captain Waller is a mentor to us all, he’s a hero, he’s—”

“Cold?”

David waved her comment away. Such things were best not said at all, certainly not in a public mess hall where someone could overhear.

She shrugged. It looked like she was about to say something else, but a crewman interrupted. “Commander McGregor? There’s a call for you.”

David wiped his mouth and scrubbed his stubbly beard. “All right, I’ll take it in my quarters.” He rose and nodded at Leah, who watched him with an unreadable expression.

The Logos was a big ship, over a kilometer long, so it took him a few minutes to cross back to his quarters. Sleek, black metal formed the halls, but the lights evenly spaced in the corners kept it from feeling too oppressive. David took the lift down to the officer’s quarters and stepped inside his room.

The lights came on the moment he did, illuminating his room in a warm blue glow. “Mazzaroth personal access,” he said. “David McGregor, code Duress 92G.” The screen on his wall flashed to life, blinking with an incoming call.

Rachel Jordan, it said.

David blew out a long breath and shut his eyes. It had been a while, over a year. They’d hardly spoken since she lost her job in New Rome. How had he let so much time pass? But it was her fault, too. She could have reached him any time. She was the one who always… no. He wasn’t going to start a conversation like that.

He sat down at the table against the opposite wall. “Receive call.”

Rachel’s face lit up the screen. She was in a bland room somewhere, and her clothes looked worn. Her brown hair fell down over her green jacket. Like so much of the rest of mankind, Rachel’s ancestry was too mixed to determine, but she had a deep skin tone that always made him want to run his thumb over it.

“Mac…” she said.

“Hey, lass. What can I do for you?”

Rachel glanced at something else in the room. Or someone else. Was she with someone? Did she have a new boyfriend? No. She’d never call him like that, not with a new man standing right there. “I heard you made Commander. Congratulations.”

“Aye, thanks.” Maybe she called just to catch up. Maybe now was the chance. “Are you still in Andromeda?”

Rachel shook her head. “The Pegasus Dwarf. Gehenna.”

David grunted, not wanting to admit he’d never heard of it. Most of Pegasus was part of Mizraim, but he’d only served there a few times. There were probably half a million inhabited worlds in the Empire, he could hardly remember them all.

“It’s a shame. I’d have liked to have seen you. I could take some leave, maybe, meet you back home in a few months, if you like.”

He may have been born on Calneh, but New Rome would always be home to the two of them.

Rachel nodded a bit, but it hardly seemed genuine. “Mac… I need to call in a favor.”

“I wasn’t aware I owed you any favors, lass,” David said, trying to feign a smile. This was not a good direction for the conversation to head. Rachel had this habit of getting into things that were best left alone.

Rachel brushed her hair back from her ear in that infuriatingly enticing way she had. Did she know what her thoughtless gesture did to him? Probably. She was an empath. “Mac… David. I really need information about the Lazarus Group. As much as you can find. Have you heard of them?”

David scratched his head. “Aye, in passing. What are you up to? Those people are khapiru, probably dangerous, Rachel. You should stay away from them.”

“I can’t. Look, can you just find the information for me? Your Sentinel access should get you—”

“You’re asking me to abuse that access.” David rose and folded his arms. “That’s not a small request.”

“Well, I’m not a small friend.”

“Aye, you’re not, but you’re a civilian asking for military intel.” He frowned at her. “And don’t think I’m gonna go bending the rules for you without knowing what you’re up to.”

“Some friend,” a man’s voice said in the background. Damn. She did have another man there. Who the bloody void was it?

Rachel shot a glare at whoever had spoken off-screen, then turned back to him. “Mac, I think they may know where to find the Sefer Raziel.”

David threw up his hands. “Are you bloody kidding me, Rachel? The book is a myth, and a blasphemous one at that. Aren’t you in enough trouble already for playing with the rules?”

“It could change the face of the future!”

“Aye, if it exists. But even if it does, that doesn’t mean the change will be good. Angels gave us what we need, and we’ve no business trying to steal their secrets. Angels above, Rachel, listen to the rules the Shekhinah makes, please.”

She had started pacing. Not a good sign. “What right does that thing have to make rules for us?”

“The Angels left the Shekhinah in charge in their absence.”

“Why should we care what they wanted?”

“Watch your mouth, lass.” David pointed at her now. “What do you think would happen to you if someone heard this kind of talk? Less than that got you fired from the finest college in the Empire. You want the Redeemers after you, too?”

“I… They already are.”

“Bloody hell, Rachel! Get off that planet and stop this. You think all your philosophy has any place outside the classroom? It didn’t even have a place in your class. People are going to die over this shite! Now listen, I’m gonna tell you what to do, and you’re gonna do it. You’re gonna get on the first transport off—”

“Mazzaroth off.”

The screen went blank.

She’d hung up on him.

David clenched his fist, then slammed it onto the table. “What the bloody void, Rachel!” he shouted at the screen.

A tremble ran through his chest, and he had to sit down, head in his hands. She was going to get herself killed. God, it was like she thought the rules of society were just suggestions. Just because she didn’t believe in the rules, didn’t mean she was excused from them. Why couldn’t she grasp that? If you wanted to reap the benefits of society, you had to pay its price, too.

And Rachel was about to pay the price for her actions.

CHAPTER NINE

There are moments in which the course of history is set. Moments in which a single choice can change the lives of billions. And most of the time, we do not see it until the moment is long past.

Night—such as it was in space—had come and gone, and David hadn’t slept. He’d remained in the chair, his feet kicked up on his table. In a few hours, he’d have to report to the bridge.

They had caught the smugglers an hour ago. The fools had tried to fire on the Logos. The battle was over in less than two seconds. The Logos was Tribulation class, a warship. The smugglers had to be completely off rotation to try to fight or flee from a ship like this. Mammon smugglers might do hard time, maybe even be banished to a barren world like Horesh, but they had the chance to live. It wasn’t a death crime.

And they’d opened fire on a ship that could pulverize a small planet in a matter of minutes. He’d never understand the criminal mind.

Or Rachel’s, for that matter. She’d thrown away a promising career. Her psionics were good enough she could pilot the Conduit, so even after she’d lost her teaching job, she could have found employment with any corp she wanted. Even the Sentinels might have accepted her application. No surprise she’d refused his request to join.

He sighed. God help him. Somehow the lass had come back into his life and managed to upset his rhythm with a single call. A person had to have his center.

And she always threw off his.

David rose and walked to his dresser, picking up the Codex with both hands and setting it gingerly on the table. The first book, the Covenant, he knew by heart, as did most citizens of Mizraim.

He read the familiar lines, speaking them like a mantra. “The sins of man brought the Adversary to Eden.” Man had reached beyond its home planet, to the very edges of its solar system, and in three fateful days the Adversary had destroyed every outpost, every station, and at last Eden itself. A beautiful blue and green world was turned toxic and barren, and mankind stood on the brink of extinction.

“On the third day, God pitied man, and sent the Angels.” Seven billion humans were dead, but the Angels drove the Adversary back. When the dust cleared, Eden was a wasteland.

“And thus the Angels brought humanity to the Exodus, out of Eden and into the beyond.” Mankind was spread throughout the Local Group and given three Commandments. The last of which, “Man shall populate the universe,” had allowed humankind to recover its numbers in record time.

Rachel had called such forced breeding dehumanizing, tantamount to rape. Sure, families with ten children weren’t as common as they were in the Days of Glory. David only had five brothers and sisters, which, even five hundred years ago, would have been a small family. Rachel had denounced the Third Commandment in her classroom, and it, among her other controversies, had cost her all she’d built of her life.

At her age, she was already arousing suspicion by being childless. If things had been different, maybe the two of them would already have kids. He’d wanted them, but she denied it was her duty to have children at all. Strange thought, that.

David gently shut the book and carried it back to his dresser with both hands. Usually it was easier to find answers.

He slumped onto his bunk. He’d met Rachel for the first time at Testament Flight School, on New Rome. He still pictured her like that sometimes, in a flight jacket blue as the sky. She’d walked right up to him and said she planned to challenge his position as the top pilot in the school.

Not that there was ever a chance of that.

“You’re a Sentinel, right?” she’d said.

“Aye.”

“You don’t look so tough.”

David laughed. At almost 190 cm and well-muscled, he knew he looked damn tough. “You’re just mistakin’ my Calnehian charm, lass.”

That weekend, he’d taken her to dinner up in the Pinnacle, a soaring arboretum above the clouds. The sun reflected off its white sheen like the sparkle off a sea of diamonds, and looking down, you could see the endless fields and rivers of New Rome, just beyond the edge of the city proper. Most Mizraim citizens could never afford to visit the Pinnacle, much less live on New Rome. David had been lucky, even despite what had happened to his mum.

The view from the Pinnacle was not one you’d ever forget. Across from his bunk on the Logos, David had hung a painting his da had done of that view, the only decoration in his quarters. It reminded him of his da, who had never been the same after losing David’s mum. And it reminded him of Rachel, the only girl he’d ever taken there.

After her, it seemed wrong to take anyone else. Like it would tarnish the memory.

And Rachel had given him a lot of memories. David had graduated flight school first in his class, a Rephaite level pilot—the highest honor a pilot could achieve. The medal sat on his dresser, beside the Codex. It meant he was the top .01% of all pilots in the universe. His psionic gifts were strong, at least as far as navigating the Conduit went, and they had served him well.

And despite all the honors—and they were great—his memories of Rachel remained his most precious there. Children aside, he should have married the lass. If she hadn’t made it clear she wasn’t ready for children. If she hadn’t felt such an off rotation need to question every rule… David shook his head at the unwanted, and unexpected, thought. He had no business with such dreams.

She was always too headstrong, anyway. She could have waited for him, she could have stayed with him. But when he returned to duty, things turned sour. They’d seen each other face-to-face so rarely, and she couldn’t keep her opinions to herself.

She couldn’t keep from sabotaging her own career, and didn’t have enough respect for his. And now she was going to go after the Sefer Raziel with or without his help. It was just her way. If he did nothing, she’d die out there.

He ordered the Mazzaroth on. “Show me planet Gehenna.”

A red world orbiting a red dwarf filled the screen. Toxic atmosphere filled with ash and sulfur. A former penal colony, now an independent oligarchy owing allegiance to no major power. High levels of volcanic activity made much of the surface uninhabitable, and hellish cities made the rest a nightmare.

Population approximately five million. David swiped his hand, processing reams of data about the place. What madness had driven Rachel there? Was she so desperate to prove herself? Or so in need of money she’d take this risk?

Another swipe of his hand. The local government enforced their rule through a brutal peacekeeping force of soldiers with little accountability. Like their own private Sentinels, only without the rule of law. Another swipe. The ultimate enforcers were assassins called Gibborim, a handful of individuals given authorization to take any steps they deemed necessary in defense of the government.

David scratched his head. Rachel needed to get out of that place, and she wouldn’t leave until she got what she wanted. Too damn stubborn.

David sighed.

“Access all records on the Lazarus Group,” he said. “And the Sefer Raziel, side-by-side.”

The screen flickered, lining up pages of information.

David sighed again.

CHAPTER TEN

September 24th, 3096 EY

Before coming here I did what research I could on Gehenna, but it lies outside the Mizraim Empire, so information was limited. More than a thousand years ago the Angels established Gehenna as a penal colony. After the Vanishing, some six hundred years ago, the planet fell into chaos. From this chaos rose a faceless oligarchy calling themselves the Shadow Council—a secretive cabal that enforced despotic rule of this planet through assassins called the Gibborim.

With Knight in tow, Rachel had visited the Babel Bazaar once more, seeking leads, and, if she was honest, a good meal. She’d found neither. The bistro had advertised Andromedan curry, but the food was stale and lacked the tangy kick Rachel had hoped for.

Frustrated, she sunk down on her bed. Knight sat in a chair, watching her, so she stared at him, silently daring him to remark on her failures.

“Finding lost relics not so easy, huh?” he said.

Dare accepted.

Rachel glowered. “You could do better?”

“I didn’t make it my business.”

She gave him the finger and he snorted, giving her a faux salute.

“Incoming call,” the Mazzaroth chimed.

Rachel stood. David. Probably going to lecture her again. She shouldn’t have hung up on the self-righteous prick. He deserved better. “Receive.”

David’s handsome face flickered onto the screen. His short, light brown hair was slicked back. But it was his weary eyes that held her gaze the most. He was only a couple of years older than her, but he looked more right now.

“Mac?”

“Rach. You’ve really got your heart set on this?”

“You know me.”

“Aye, too well.”

So he was going to help her. Rachel tried not to break into a grin, but she knew it was tugging at the side of her mouth. David couldn’t help himself, could he? God, she wished he was right here, so she could feel his emotions. The Conduit amplified psionic energies, but she couldn’t get an empathic read through the Mazzaroth.

Her crusade had cost her too much. Had cost him. Sometimes, she dreamed about him. She dreamed she had stayed on New Rome, given in to his obvious desire for children. They were good dreams. Except that countless generations continued on until the end of time—stagnant and unchanging, never moving forward. Never able to see beyond the past or grasp the future. And she’d wake, still trying to find the right words to make him see that. As if convincing just that one person would make it all worthwhile.

“Lass, you know these people are dangerous.”

“Yeah, I—”

She hadn’t seen Knight move, but suddenly he was beside her, hand over her shoulder. “Don’t worry. She’s got danger all around her.”

Rachel shrugged Knight’s arm off her shoulder. “What’re you doing?” A flare of jealousy lurked beneath his smile. The sickest of all emotions, perhaps, though a small part of her almost enjoyed it.

“Who’s this then?” David said.

Rachel glared at Knight. Perfect. Clearly she should have explicitly told Knight not to show himself. The man must need things laid out for him.

“My bodyguard, Mac. Don’t worry about it.”

From the look on his face, he was worried about it. “I’m not sure whether to be worried you need a bodyguard, or relieved you realized it in time to get one.”

Rachel pushed Knight away, and he stepped back out of the screen’s line of view. Too little too late. “Just be relieved,” she said. “This isn’t why you called…”

“No, it’s not,” he said, with that slight Calnehian accent of his, and as always, it made the hairs on the back of her neck tingle. It reminded her of the things he’d coo while nuzzling her neck. “I did what you asked, God help me.”

“Thank you, Mac.” God seemed inclined to help her, at last. “And the Lazarus Group?”

“Intel says they’re running things out of a bunker in Machpelah, a city in Gehenna’s southern hemisphere. It’s near a vast caldera field, Rach. Big sulfuric geysers and so forth. Not a nice place.”

“Well, at least you could breathe there.” She brushed her hair away from her face.

“Not funny, lass. You don’t want to spend any more time there than you have to.”

Well that was an understatement. Rachel would be just as happy to leave Gehenna behind her. It’d make a fine story some evening, when she was toasting her successes in style, vindicated before her peers. What it didn’t make was a nice place to be in the here and now.

“I don’t know exactly where in Machpelah this bunker is. Intel on Gehenna is somewhat limited. The Empire never had too much interest in the planet.”

“It’s fine, Mac. It’s a place to start.”

David scratched his head. “Aye, it’s that. Rachel, I did some research about the Sefer, too. Someone in the Sentinels seems to think it’s real.”

She damn well hoped so, after all this.

“If it is, if an Angel really recorded the secrets of the universe, you know other people are gonna want this thing? Want it bad enough to…”

“Yeah.”

David smiled at her, though his eyes looked sad. “Aye. I’ve got to report for duty.”

“Mac… Thanks.” Rachel stilled the impulse to blow him a kiss. A foolish thought. They’d been down that road and it had led nowhere. In a perfect universe, things would have been different, and maybe he’d have left his post for her. Or maybe she’d still be teaching, and everything would be like it was.

But the universe had more than one flaw. And she could only be expected to solve one at a time.

David nodded. “Mazzaroth off.”

She sighed.

“Helpful guy,” Knight said.

“Shut up.” A tremble started in her chest, and she had to clench her fists to still it. Had she made a mistake, back then? Should she have tried harder?

But if she let doubt cloud her path now, she’d fail. Nothing would change, and humanity would remain mired in the weight of traditions imposed on them.

But then… she could have David. His face almost told her as much. They could go back to New Rome, raise a family. Even Jeremiah might forgive her. Void, if she got pregnant, he’d probably take it as a sign, even raise a toast in her honor.

“To Machpelah, then?” Knight said.

This was about more than her life. It was about the lives of those same children she was thinking of. “To Machpelah,” she agreed. “Does the monorail go there, or do we need a shuttle?”

Knight stretched. “I’ve got it covered. I’ll be back in twenty minutes.”

Rachel nodded, and he left. She started to pack, then realized she didn’t really have anything here to take. She really needed to buy some new clothes. Some of the plain brown wraps locals wore might be in order.

True to his word, Knight returned quickly. She followed him downstairs, where he had parked a hoverbike. The thing was black and chrome, far duller than the racing bikes she’d tried on the New Rome tracks. Scratches marred some surfaces. This thing had been through a fight, probably several.

“You’re going to drive that to Machpelah?”

“It’s best we have our own transportation in an unfamiliar city.”

“You’ve never been there?”

Knight frowned, and straddled the bike. “Once or twice. I know the way.” He tossed her a helmet. “Get on.”

Really, there was no point in arguing. Having their own ride would be an asset. With a sigh, she sat down behind Knight, wrapping her arms around his waist.

When he turned on the bike the windshield extended upward, providing some cover. The bike hummed, then lifted a few feet off the ground. It wasn’t as smooth a ride as the racers she was used to, but it had power. They took off down the road, at perhaps 120kph. Knight zoomed through the Beeroth streets with practiced ease, bobbing and weaving around other hovers.

In moments they were leaving the city behind, and open waste spread out in front of them. Knight accelerated, and the bike kicked up past 300kph. A gravity field split the wind in front of them, keeping her from being thrown off, but it was damn loud. Talking would be impossible, and she still had to hold tight.

His emotions surged. Was it her hands around his abdomen, or just the thrill of the speed? A stronger empath might be able to tell the difference. But really, it didn’t matter. She felt herself warm from the closeness, for the feel of his hard muscles beneath his armor.

But Knight wasn’t an option. He was too far off rotation, too dangerous. Instead, she entertained herself by picturing David’s smirk when he’d win a race, his good natured jibes.

Lightning coursed from black clouds in the sky ahead. She never heard thunder. To the left, a geyser spewed vapors and ash, perhaps a kilometer away from the road. Knight accelerated, but otherwise paid it no mind.

Few hovers traveled the road between cities. The planet was so empty. Like the whole population hid in a few cities, trying to forget the world they lived on. Moments later, Knight zipped around a cargo transport, hovering a bit higher off the road.

Rachel glanced down. Road might have been a stretch. It was a designated travel lane, but hardly paved. The markers every hundred meters or so must have just indicated areas clear of the geysers.

If she still had her ear comm she could at least talk to him. But now that she thought about it, she’d never seen Knight with a comm, either. Who in the holy universe carried no comm? Well, except for her—but she’d had reason to cast hers aside.

It must have been two hours before another city crested the skyline. It was smaller than Beeroth, but no less oppressive. Dark metal towers reached into the sky like fingers trying to dig their way out of a mire. The ash and pollution thickened over the city, hiding even the dim red sunlight she’d seen on occasion on the way here.

This was Machpelah. And somewhere in that twisted city she’d find the Lazarus Group.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Gehenna lies in the Pegasus Dwarf Galaxy, most of which falls under Mizraim jurisdiction. However, the Empire never showed interest in Gehenna, perhaps because a world so near the Expanse of Nod—a world without any natural resources—was simply not worth the effort to claim. Most of the rest of the universe was content to let the Shadow Council play their meaningless power games, trapped on their hellhole much as if it were still a prison.

The truth was, Machpelah wasn’t much different than Beeroth. The city was a bit smaller, with a population of perhaps a million people. But the architecture, clothes, and people all seemed about the same to Rachel.

“How do you plan to locate them?” Knight asked, after she booked a room in another hotel. They were high up, higher than she’d wanted, on the fortieth story. It’d be hard to make an escape from here, if it came to that. But then, she didn’t intend to spend much time in the room.

She shrugged. “It’s not like we can just check an information directory. But money tends to open a lot of doors.”

“True. You want me to handle it?”

Rachel frowned. It might make it easier if she let him, but that would mean trusting him completely. It was hard to throw full trust in someone just interested in the money. Besides, she needed to see this through herself. “No. I’ll come with you.”

“I suppose you want to sample the local cuisine first.”

Rachel smirked, but shook her head. “Later.”

They spent the next two days combing the city. Rachel had lost count of how many kesitahs she’d spent on bribes. Funny, currency she’d once considered next to worthless had started to add up. It was so easy to spend more money than you realized when using foreign coin.

“This guy, they say he knows,” Knight said, as they headed for Club Migdal. No sign announced the club, but Knight seemed to know where they were going. He led her down a staircase to an underground airlock.

“What is this place, anyway?”

“A pit fighting club. The rich sometimes come here to bet on martial artists in the ring.” He hit the buzzer, and the airlock whooshed open. “The government knows about these places, and doesn’t do anything to stop them as long as the owners keep a low profile.”

“Why would the government even care?”

Knight glanced at her. “Even on Gehenna, death matches are frowned on.”

What? “You mean the fights are to the death?”

Knight didn’t answer, just stepped through the airlock into the club when it opened.

“Why would anyone take that chance?” she asked.

Knight paused and spoke into her ear. “Suits put a lot of money into it. A good fighter could make a small fortune. A half dozen fights with the right backer, and you might not have to work for years.”

“Then why don’t you do this?” she asked before she could stop herself. She’d seen Knight kill people just for the money she was paying him. The thought made her stomach squirm. It was too easy to forget what he was, to start to like him. Too feel that edge of warmth under his simmering mass of rage and tension. Somewhere, deep down, he wasn’t all bad, but he was out of control.

“Attracts a lot of attention from those suits, like I said. People in my line of work don’t want attention.”

Wonderful. So he boycotted the blood sport not out of principle, or even fear of death, but out of desire to remain anonymous.

Rachel drifted through the club, scanning for anyone matching the description she’d been given. A man in his forties, trim black hair, silver eyes. Save the eyes, dozens of people could have matched that description.

“That’s him,” Knight said a few minutes later, a jerk of his head indicating a man watching the pit.

“How can you be—”

“It’s him.”

Rachel glowered. “I wish you’d stop interrupting—”

“Are you going to talk to him or am I?”

“I’ll do it,” she said. “I wouldn’t want him driven to suicide in frustration.”

The sudden roar of the crowd made her jump. Down in the pit, a giant of a man, probably over 210cm, had caught a smaller man in a headlock. He must be an Anakim, one of the bloodlines the Angels had developed. Anakim were designed for high gravity worlds, larger, stronger, and very tough.

The victim’s eyes bulged as the Anakim squeezed. He beat vainly against the giant’s arm, and then was still.

The Anakim lifted his opponent over his head, then slammed him down over his knee. The sickening crack of a spine snapping echoed through the club, drowned out immediately by more cheers. Bile rose in Rachel’s throat.

Much as she wanted to look away, her eyes locked on the still victim, his body bent at an odd angle. These people were monsters. Could she blame the Angels for putting their ancestors here? Or did growing up in such a place create the monsters? Was the predisposition toward violence and crime genetic? Or just a result of this place itself? Imprisoned without a charge or crime, condemned to fight for survival, this world had given rise to men like that Anakim.

And men like Knight.

She threaded her way through the throng while the giant shouted for more challengers. Her target spotted her coming his way, met her gaze, then turned and began forcing his way through the crowd. Son of a bitch was running.

“Knight!”

She glanced back at Knight, who wended his way toward her.

And beyond him, at least a dozen Gehennan soldiers in battle armor had taken up position. “Everyone on the floor!” a soldier shouted, his voice distorted by his helm.

“Raid!” someone cried.

The crowd turned to chaos in a heartbeat. Some few, those nearest the soldiers, obeyed and dropped to their knees.

The soldier pointed at Rachel. “That’s her. Take her alive.”

Holy shit. Rachel couldn’t quite swallow. They couldn’t really be here for her. Government troops? An illegal pit fight, and they’d come for her? No, it wasn’t possible. How would the Gehennans even know?

“Run!” Knight shouted. He was beside her, shoving her away from the soldiers.

He leapt onto the rail surrounding the pit and sprinted toward the soldiers. One opened fire with a MAG rifle. A working MAG.

Knight spun horizontally through the air, avoiding the slugs while he pulled something from his coat. A small sword? The blade extended, becoming a weapon almost a meter long, with a slight curve.

Knight swung the blade at the soldier and it cut right through the MAG, splitting it in half.

Rachel almost stumbled. God, how was that possible? No blade should cut through even the outer shell, much less the rail.

“Run!” Knight shouted again, as the Gehennan troopers moved in on him. One tried to attack him with a long knife, while another leveled some kind of pointed rod at him.

One of the soldiers flung a grenade at her. Rachel dove to the ground and slapped it away. It exploded into the crowd, releasing an electrical cloud that dropped everyone nearby into convulsions on the floor.

Shit, shit, shit! She pushed herself up and jumped down into the pit. The three meter fall stung her ankles, though she landed in a crouch. David was right. She was in over her head. Redeemers were bad enough, but now an entire government was hunting her, too.

There was a side door in the pit, and the Anakim had flung it open. Rachel dashed after him. Gunfire retorted above her head. Something exploded.

She never should have come here.

She ran down the hall. Suddenly the giant stopped, backing up. Ahead of him, a soldier was pointing another of those rods.

“Surrender,” the soldier said.

The Anakim roared and charged him. The rod jerked and a half-meter spike launched from it. The lance struck the giant in the chest and hurled him back into Rachel. The impact threw her down. Numbing shocks ran through her elbows where they hit the floor.

She could still escape. Single shot projectile weapon, its ammunition spent. One soldier. She could escape one man. She rose to her knees and let the man approach. He shoved her against the wall and tried to restrain her hands behind her back.

She stomped on his foot and slammed her shoulder into his chest. The armor probably stopped any real harm, but an oomph escaped the man, and he released her.

Rachel took off at a dead run, dashing around the next corner and then the next. Stairs led back up to the main level.

Where was Knight? Those soldiers were going to kill him.

And there was nothing she could do about it.

Others were still fleeing out a back door into the alley, crowding the airlock.

Rachel pressed on her breather and pushed her way into the airlock. Knight could take care of himself. There was nothing she could for him right now.

CHAPTER TWELVE

In truth, I think the Gehennan history bears further study. It represents a useful look at the reality of human nature. If we are to rise above ourselves, our basic instincts, we must understand them. And what better place to see our truest, darkest selves than a world like Gehenna, a world where all comforts are stripped away?

Knight rammed his mono sword into the belly of a soldier. A splatter of blood gushed out, covering his coat. Behind him, another one was bringing a MAG pistol to bear. Knight snapped his foot out, slamming the MAG against the pit rail and pinning it there.

He slammed his palm into a third man’s face, then spun back and grabbed the man trying to free his MAG. Knight turned the fool round, bent him over his own MAG, and pulled the trigger. He tossed the volatile weapon at the helmet of a soldier rushing him with a mono sword.

His heart pounded in his chest. His adrenaline soared. Everyone else moved in slow motion. He could always count on his reflexes. He yanked his sword free from the dying soldier, ducked under the blow of the newest attacker, and chopped the man’s sword arm off.

A sudden sense of unease told him someone took aim at him. Knight flipped sideways through the air, landing on the rail again, and evaded a lancerod bolt. The bolt impaled a civilian behind where Knight had just stood.

Knight kicked off the rail, jumped on a man’s shoulders, and leapt to the wall. He kicked off it, landing in a crouch behind the soldier with the lancerod. A swipe of the sword severed both of the man’s legs.

More gunfire rang to the side. A pair of soldiers rushed him, mono swords high. Knight waited for them to close, then jerked to the side, using them against each other. His own blade cleaved through armor with little effort, cutting down the first man.

The second tried to reposition. Knight kicked out his knee, grabbed the man’s sword, and rammed it right through his faceplate.

A lancerod clicked. The world fell into stillness as Knight turned, seeing the trajectory. He twisted, almost fast enough, as the missile flew through the air. It caught the edge of his coat. He felt the impact, but the nanobots in the mesh absorbed and distributed the kinetic energy.

Rachel had to be free by now. She’d gone down into the pit. Chances were, more troops would show up soon. Knight jumped onto another charging fool, kicking off his face, and flipped into the pit.

He landed in a crouch, then launched himself forward through the tunnel. The champion was dead down there. Knight leapt onto the wall for two steps, going over the massive body, and kept running.

He reached the back lobby, a secret escape into the alley. The suits had to have a way out in case of a raid. Rachel wasn’t here. At least the damn girl had run like he’d said. Now where was she? She was his ticket off this rock, and no way was he letting her slip through his fingers.

He shoved others out of the way and entered the airlock, buzzing it closed. Damn things took too long. Especially for those who didn’t need breathers. He recompressed his mono sword and tucked it back inside his coat. More soldiers were out here, rounding people up.

Knight slipped into the shadows, making not a sound. He scrambled up crevices on the wall, then kicked off it to reach the next building. This one had windows. Perfect handholds. He leapt sideways from one to the next, ascending onto the roof, five stories above.

Thunder rumbled. More rain was coming.

Just what he needed.

From the edge of the roof he scanned the alleys. Soldiers had rounded up a lot of patrons, but not Rachel. He sprinted to the other side of the building. She was there, off another alley, talking to her lead.

She’d actually found the guy with the silver eyes. Impressive.

She’d wind up in danger again within the next five minutes, though. Another building, a story lower, stood across the street, perhaps five meters. Knight backed away from the edge, took a deep breath, and ran. He kicked off the roof ledge and flew through the air. His coat tails streamed out behind him.

A heartbeat of freedom. Soaring.

He landed in a roll on the lower roof, coming immediately back to his feet into another run. He turned, leaping to another building, and catching a balcony on the second story. He released his grip, then caught the lower ledge. Then he let go and landed in a crouch.

Rachel would be just around the other corner. As long as the target hadn’t moved, he should have his back to this alley. Knight slipped around the corner, keeping to the shadows. Never let them see you until it’s too late. That was always the way.

“Look, it’s ten thousand kesitahs,” Rachel said, trying to press some chips at the suit. “Just take the money and tell me where to find these people.”

“You’re fucking off rotation if you think I’m getting involved, bitch. Those were government soldiers. What’s next, Gibborim?”

Knight grabbed the man’s shoulder, eliciting a shout from him and a muffled cry from Rachel. He flung the suit against the wall. “Don’t want money? Fine. You still have to answer the question.”

The man rubbed his shoulder and glared at Knight. Then he went for something in his coat. Knight grabbed the man’s wrist and twisted. A knife clattered to the ground. Knight slammed his palm down on the man’s forearm. The bone snapped with a sharp crack and the suit fell, screaming.

“Angels above!” he moaned. “You broke my arm.”

“Knight!” Rachel said.

Knight leaned down to look in the suit’s face. “It’s okay. She’s going to give you the money to get it fixed. Start talking before your hospital stay becomes more expensive. Right now, you’re still making a profit.”

“Fuck you, you—”

Knight punched him across the jaw. The man’s head snapped back against the wall, and he slumped to the ground, gurgling something incomprehensible.

“Knight!” Rachel said again. “Void, man!”

He barely glanced at her. “Sooner or later those soldiers are going to catch up to us. This has gotten a lot bigger than it was a day ago. Now it’s time to get this information and get the fuck out of here.” He turned back to the suit. “Tell her what she wants to know. Now.”

The man glared up at him, blood trickling down his chin.

Fine. Knight grabbed him by the chin and pulled him to his feet. “Do you like the other arm?”

“Wait!” Tears slipped from his eyes, whether from pain or fear, Knight didn’t know. Or care.

He was getting his money and getting out of here. Now that the government was involved, time was short for Rachel, and maybe even shorter for him. The moment the Shadow Council learned he was involved, things would turn very, very ugly.

“Please, I’ll tell you… They have a safe house in the Beulah District. Underground, marked with the sign of the serpent. Please, just let me go.”

Knight did, and the man fell back onto the ground, cradling his arm. “Come on,” he said to Rachel.

She trotted after him. “Don’t you even care about the pain you’ve caused?”

“Do you?”

“Of course I care! That’s why I told you to—”

“Not what I was asking.” He shook his head, continuing his circuitous route back to the bike. Best avoid the whole area of the club, as much as possible. “Do you care about the pain you’re causing? Your mission for this Sefer, whatever it is, has led to dozens of deaths, conspiracies, and God knows what else.”

Rachel stopped for a moment, stumbling over her own feet. “Wait a minute, you’re the one who killed most of those people.”

“Because of a situation you created. And you’re being naive if you think those are the only victims of this. You’ve got megacorps and the Gehennan oligarchy after you. I can guarantee there are more people hurt by this than you know.”

“I’m trying to change the future.”

“Tell yourself whatever you want. It doesn’t change the truth.”

Rachel pulled him around to face her. She still wore the headscarf, and though he couldn’t see her mouth because of the breather, her eyes glowered. “You talk like you care about other people. Deep down, maybe there’s a part of you that does. But you’re the one breaking bones!”

Who the void did she think she was? He sneered at her. “Don’t put this on me. You came looking for a warrior, because you’d managed to get dangerous men after you. Now, I’m all you’ve got.” He turned the next corner and hopped on the bike. “So get on.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Angels had always forbade mankind to journey into the Expanse of Nod. After the Vanishing, some people did—most never returned. The Redeemers claimed the region was damned, and those who ventured there deserved their fate. And yet, pirates and privateers began to take up hiding in the Expanse, knowing even Sentinels would hesitate to pursue them inside. Without doubt, the Angels chose Gehenna for their prison because most people would fear to even get close to this system.

Rachel climbed onto the back of Knight’s hoverbike. “We should go for that safe house now.”

“The soldiers are already looking for you,” he said. “Every minute we spend in this city—”

“Then we’d best do this before they realize where we’re going.”

Knight shook his head and sighed. “Put on the helmet. Let’s get this done.”

Rachel did, and Knight started the bike again. It lifted off, and he drove fast, but not fast enough to draw attention. It took less than ten minutes to get to the Beulah District. Her bodyguard seemed to know where he was going—fairly well considering he’d said he’d only been here once or twice.

There were far too many things she didn’t know about this man. He’d tortured that guy almost without a thought. Rachel didn’t have any love for the vile little informant either, but Knight had crossed a line he didn’t even seem to know was there. And yet, an hour ago, hadn’t she been thinking she couldn’t judge him, that circumstances had led him to where he was?

She hopped off the bike and stowed the helmet. “Do you know where this serpent building is?”

“No.” He took off his own helmet and powered down the bike. A moment later, he started walking, again almost like he knew where he was going. “You know this mission of yours is off rotation, right?”

Rachel grit her teeth and said nothing. The Sefer Raziel was said to reveal the location of the Ark, the repository of all Angel knowledge. With that, the entire universe would change. Humanity would finally have the understanding to rise up and reach its next stage. To break away from rules and traditions that had dominated them for thirty-one centuries.

“Haven’t you ever wondered about the truth, Knight?” she said after a moment. “Where do we come from? What else is out there? Why the rules about the Conduit? What is the Conduit really? How can we speak to God ourselves?”

“Not really. I wonder about when I’ll get paid, where I’ll get my next meal, whether the man watching us from the far alley is a threat, or if whoever is moving behind the shades in that window has a gun.”

Beaten down by the practical. Rachel sighed. Could she really blame him? However off rotation her father may have been, she and her brothers had always had food, a safe place to stay, all the comforts of the elite.

“That looks like it,” he said, pointing to a building matching her reluctant informant’s description. “What now?”

Rachel shut her eyes. Indeed. David made it clear these people were dangerous criminals. They weren’t going to share, and they weren’t going to cooperate. She sighed and looked him right in the face. “This is too big to let some fringe group control the answers. We have to get whatever they know. But Knight, don’t kill anyone.”

He shook his head. “Not going to promise that. I’ll do my best, but I have to take whatever steps are necessary, when they’re needed. You want this info so badly, face the consequences of that desire.” With that, he strode toward the building marked with the serpent.

Rachel swallowed hard, then trotted off after him. He’d really kill more people for her, whether she wanted him to or not. And by pressing forward with this, was she responsible for their deaths?

She had to focus. She’d come this far. There was no turning back. “How are we going to get past the airlock?” If this place was secure then surely they’d need a code to open it.

Knight pointed to the windows at the building above. “Reinforced glass. Tough, but not indestructible.”

Okay. But how was he going to get up there?

Knight drew the sword from his coat and extended it again. Then he took off running toward the building, and ran up it, three steps. He lunged with the blade and it pierced the window with a slight shriek. The glass was too thick to shatter, but his weight pulled the sword down until he got a foot on the windowsill to support himself. He carved out a circle in the window, then kicked it in.

A moment later he tucked his legs through the hole and bent over backwards, hanging by his knees and extending a hand down to her. She ran and jumped to grab it, then climbed up his body, trying not to notice the sudden turn of his emotions as she climbed over his midsection.

He slipped through the hole after her.

“Are you using a GD?” she asked.

“What?”

“A gravity dilator? Is that how you did that?”

She’d heard Sentinels sometimes had the devices built into their suits. She’d even used the device a few times, recreationally, for balcony diving.

“No.” He strode down the hall, almost at a run. She followed. A guard with a breather tried to stop Knight, going for some kind of rod at his side. Knight caught him with a fist to the stomach and stripped off the breather. A pair of men were gasping for breath further down the hall, caught too far out of reach of breathers.

Knight had cut out the window and flooded this place with toxic gas. How his sword had done was another question. It must have been a monofilament blade, like he mentioned before. But she wasn’t exactly sure what that entailed. A conversation for another time.

A woman armed with a two meter long staff tried to stop Knight, though she was clearly having trouble breathing. He shoved her against the wall and then down a staircase. Knight dashed down the stairs past the fallen woman without pause. Rachel trotted after, stopping to check if the woman was alive. She lived, though if someone didn’t patch the window, there would be more deaths on her conscience.

Keep the focus. There was nothing she could do about that now.

Knight sprinted down another staircase and Rachel was hard-pressed to keep up. Not only were his reflexes preternaturally fast, he ran and moved like nothing she’d ever seen. It was still a bit hard to believe he hadn’t violated the First Commandment.

Down in the basement, a group of men and women stood inside a sealed lab, clearly concerned, but not apparently armed. The airlock that separated them had only a buzzer, which meant no lock.

In the center of the lab was a tablet projecting a holographic image onto the walls. Dozens of screens were filled with notes and records. God, could that really be it? The Sefer Raziel?

Knight hit the buzzer to the airlock, and Rachel followed him inside. These people weren’t just looking for the Sefer. They’d found it. And might have been on the way to unlocking the path to the Ark itself.

“Stop!” one of them shouted as Knight came through.

“Give us the Sefer and we won’t hurt you,” Rachel said.

“No!” Two of the men ran at Knight.

He moved like lightning, ducking their clumsy attacks. He slammed his hand like a knife under the arm of one and back into the ribs of the other. They both collapsed to the floor. The woman pulled a rod from beneath her coat and moved on him. The rod telescoped out, becoming one of those staffs. Damn. Neat weapon for a place where she’d seen several MAGs jam already. Nothing compared to Knight’s mono sword, of course.

Knight tripped her, then fell knees-first onto her chest and punched her across the face. She lay still, and he left her be, then grabbed the tablet off the center table. In an instant, the hologram shut off and the images vanished from the walls. “This it?” he asked, handing her the tablet.

God, it had to be. These people seemed to practically venerate the thing. She nodded.

“Then let’s go.”

They returned through the airlock. “I guess we can just go out the front door,” she said.

Knight shrugged, and headed up the stairs to the first level. Rachel followed just behind, then turned from the staircase toward the main hall.

The airlock opened.

A man entered, clad in black armor similar to Gehennan soldiers, but this was sleeker. A mask covered his mouth and nose, a green-lit visor over his eyes. His armor had a gray insignia that looked like the old Greek letter Lambada.

Before she could even ask, Knight grabbed her and yanked her back to the stairs. “Go!” he whispered through clenched teeth. “Back the way we came in, now!”

“What?” One soldier suddenly worried him?

“Go!” He shoved her, and she ran up the stairs.

He raced down the hall, then stopped at the window. Glancing down. “They’ve sent a Gibborim. We need to get out of this city, right now.”

Rachel nodded. David had said something about government assassins. Anything that worried Knight sounded like something she didn’t want to mess with. She tucked the tablet inside her jacket and climbed back out the window.

The moment she dropped down, Knight followed her, landing beside her in a crouch. He grabbed her and yanked her along behind him, at a pace she could barely match. He dashed around two alleys and back to the hoverbike.

“Get on.” He started it without waiting for her, so she jumped on the back.

Knight cranked it up and shot away even before she was settled, and she had to clutch her arms around him to catch herself.

She had the Sefer.

God, she really had it.

The secrets of the Angels would unfold before her. The Sefer Raziel had recorded the way to all the truths long concealed from mankind.

Everything she’d lost… Everyone she’d lost to get here. Her career, her family. David. They’d all see now. With the Ark she’d save humanity from themselves. Not everyone would understand, not at first. But one day, one day mankind would rise up and find its true purpose—not in blind obedience, but in struggling to rise above itself.

And maybe then she and David could find a way…

Knight’s hoverbike sped away from Machpelah. If they had been a minute slower getting here, the Gibborim might have gotten there first. It seemed even the Gehennan government was looking for the Sefer. How had they found out?

It didn’t matter now. No one, not the Redeemers, the Lazarus Group, or the Gehennans, were going to take this away from her.

She had to pat the tablet inside her jacket to reassure herself it was still there.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

September 25th, 3096 EY

I have found it. Everyone, all those at NRU who doubted me, even Mac, they’ll see now I was right.

When they returned to Beeroth, Knight bypassed the Royal Palace.

“What’s going on?” Rachel shouted, trying to be heard over the hum of the bike and the roar of the wind.

Knight shook his head, so she just held on, wondering what he was up to now. He drove her to a run-down area of the city where half the apartments didn’t even seem to have lights on, and most of the others had no windows at all. Knight parked the bike in an underground garage.

“What are we doing here?” Rachel asked. This place looked like the worst Gehenna had to offer—which was saying something.

“It’s too dangerous to go back to the hotel. The government is looking for us now. They’ll start by checking places like that.”

Rachel frowned. She should have thought of that herself. Excitement over the Sefer might be getting the best of her. “So what’s this place?”

“I live here.”

Oh.

She followed him to an airlock, then up a flight of stairs. All the doors they passed were closed. No name plates, no sign of other people, save the flicker of lights under a few doors. Not the kind of place where you had tea with the neighbors.

Knight’s apartment was around the first corner. Predictably, it had a key card lock. Maybe a guy like him wouldn’t want a DNA or retinal scanner anyway. He swiped the card, and yanked open the door.

A light flickered on inside, revealing a dirty mess. A handful of clothes were littered on the sofa, dishes crowded the breakfast bar, and not a single decoration added any life to the place. Nothing except a set of odd hand-to-hand weapons hanging on the wall.

Rachel walked over to the display. There was another sword, similar to the one Knight had with him, and an empty set of hangars. More interestingly, a knife blade hung there, attached to a short handle by a wire-thin cord. “What is this?”

Knight approached behind her. He made no noise when he walked, but she could feel his presence, the warmth of his body as he stood a little too close. His emotions had jumbled, a mix of anxiety, attraction, and maybe even a slight hint of caring. “A mono katana and mono kyoketsu.”

Well that was helpful. “What does that even mean, exactly?”

Knight turned her to face him, his hands firm on her arm as he pulled her around. For a moment, he watched her eyes, and she felt her pulse quicken. What did he intend here? Because she wasn’t about to let anything happen. No way. She couldn’t.

After a few breaths he drew the other sword from his coat. “The sword compresses for concealment, but the important thing is the monofilament—a monomolecular edge of carbon nanotubes.”

Rachel grunted in sudden understanding. A strand of super-bonded molecules like that would be able to sever other molecules, meaning it could cut through most substances and never lose its edge. No wonder Knight had been able to cleave through metal, armor, and reinforced glass so easily. “And the kio-whatsit?”

Knight shook his head, smirking a little, and hung the sword on the wall. “Kyoketsu. A retractable whip knife using the same technology. More dangerous to wield.”

Rachel nodded, and moved to the couch, pushing aside a shirt she hoped was clean so she could sit. “I don’t suppose you have anything to eat?”

Knight gave her that lazy double salute again. “I’ll bring us a pizza. Don’t leave while I’m gone.”

Where would she go?

Knight went for the pizza—odd to think a guy like him enjoyed pizza. But, then, why not? For all his bravado, all his attempts to come off as this apathetic killer, he was still just another guy. Wasn’t he?

Rachel took a quick tour of the apartment. Other than the washroom, it was a single open room. A small kitchen and breakfast bar, the sofa in front of the wall screen, and an open area in one corner—the only clean spot in the entire place. A mat covered the floor in that corner. Where he trained?

She paused, confused. Something was missing. The whole place had no bed? What kind of apartment had no bed?

Rachel returned to the couch. A pile of take-out boxes covered the coffee table. Underneath, she found a pamphlet. She flipped it open to a view of the Pinnacle on New Rome.

A travel brochure. It showed off the stark white buildings and golden lights that composed the capital city, the crystal clean canals that connected the world, and the hover races on the southern plateau. The back side mentioned the exorbitant prices to lease property there.

A few minutes later Knight returned with a piping hot pizza. The smell of garlic, onions, and foreign peppers filled the room and set her stomach growling. She hadn’t eaten in—honestly, she wasn’t sure how long. Almost a day, probably.

“You’re paying for this,” he said, setting the pizza on the coffee table.

“Yeah, okay.” No surprise. “You don’t keep much stuff, do you?” She grabbed a slice of pizza and inhaled the scents briefly before digging in.

“A man needs few things outside his purpose.”

Rachel laughed, almost choking on her pizza. “His purpose? And that long hair, so carefully styled to look unstyled and rugged, the all black leather… all that’s not an affectation? You try so hard to make people think you don’t care what anyone thinks, but you obviously do.”

Knight scowled and folded his arms.

“Oh, come on,” she said. “I’m teasing you. It’s not a bad thing that you’re human like the rest of us. You don’t have to work so hard to seem so professional all the time. How about this New Rome thing,” she said, nudging the brochure. “Even you want a vacation, huh?”

A sudden shock ran through her, like a wall had slammed down over his emotions. His eyes narrowed, then he stalked off to the washroom. “I need a shower.”

What had just happened? She sighed. She hadn’t meant to offend him. But he really should lighten up a bit. The man was wound so tight he’d snap one day. Maybe it wasn’t her problem. The mess of contradictions going on inside his brain was more than she could sort out, even if she wanted to try.

Besides, she had the Sefer. She took out the tablet and turned it on.

A hologram displayed, showing a series of symbols and diagrams. She passed her hand through it and it flipped to another section. It was some kind of code. She paged through it. Hundreds of pages of code…

Her mind wouldn’t focus. God, this was going to take forever. She needed to get off Gehenna before anyone found her. But if the Sefer led her to something here, then leaving would only make things more complicated.

Knight had protected her, he’d done his job. She supposed she should pay him. Especially if she was thinking of staying here a few more days. And maybe she should apologize. Antagonizing him… she didn’t think she had anything to fear from him, but still. Maybe he didn’t deserve that. Let him have his eccentricities. Everyone had secrets, she supposed. Herself included.

He came out from the washroom in pants, but shirtless, revealing hardened muscles and a fair number of scars. Cuts, scratches, maybe even slug wounds. It didn’t surprise her that she could make out every chiseled muscle of his abdomen. It did, however, leave her feeling a little flushed, and damn glad he wasn’t an empath. If he could feel what she felt right now… God help her, the man was a killer. Besides, part of her still dreamed of working things out with David. She could show him the Sefer, prove she’d been right about everything. He’d come back to her, then.

She forced her eyes away from Knight’s abdomen. Look at his face. “New Rome is a beautiful place,” she said.

His eyes went blank. That wall was there. Not like a man trained to fight off empaths, but like a man trained to hide his feelings even from himself. “What do you know about it?” It wasn’t a question, more an accusation.

Rachel leaned back on the couch. “I grew up there. My family was rich, corporate background. But I didn’t get on very well with them. Not after I was a teenager. I moved out to go to university as soon as I could.”

Knight’s face had lost a bit of its edge. “Is it… can you really look down on white clouds?”

“From the upper stories of buildings or the Pinnacle, sure.”

His face was unreadable, but an almost child-like awe drifted off him. It was like rays of light, poking at her consciousness through holes in his armor. At last he sat down beside her and grabbed a slice of pizza. He didn’t speak until he’d finished eating it. “The water is really clear, and blue?”

The closeness of him, the tentative, almost fearful opening of his emotions left her a little lightheaded. But she found herself smiling, just a bit. “So clear you can see the shimmering bottom of some of the canals. Once David and I went rafting down a canal and passed over a school of rainbow fish. It was beautiful.” She paused for a moment, drinking in the slight anticipation of his emotions, which set her skin tingling. “You’ve never been off Gehenna, have you?”

Knight licked his fingers clean of pizza sauce, then stared at the blank screen when he answered. “Kesitahs don’t convert to much. It’s damn hard to earn the kind of money I’d need to make it to New Rome.”

“That’s where you want to live… That’s why you wanted to be paid in Mizraim credits.”

“Would you want to live here?”

Shit no. “Even paradise has its flaws, though, Knight.” Sometimes, she’d almost choose the overt horror of a place like this over the subtle fear, the knowledge that your every action was watched and judged against the weight of doctrine. Someone was always watching, always telling you how to live.

Rachel pulled off her headscarf, then brushed out her hair. She could feel it, when his interest sparked, when his arousal piqued, and she couldn’t help but luxuriate in it, drawing out each motion. “Listen, Knight, sorry if I overstepped myself earlier. It’s not my business how you… It’s your life.” She pulled credit chips from her jacket. “It’s most of what I owe you. But I need you to let me stay a few days, until I figure this Sefer out. I’ve got to break the code, I’ve got to know what it offers.”

If she turned it over to Galizur and Quasar Industries without solving it herself, she couldn’t be guaranteed they would share the knowledge. In fact, QI was a megacorp specialized in weaponry and space technology. It was a reasonable bet they would want the secrets for themselves.

Oh, Galizur would pay regardless, but she had to do this for more than the money. The fate of humanity was at stake. If the Redeemers got the book, nothing would change. And in a way, that was the greatest tragedy. Mankind would remain forever mired in tradition, unable to think for itself or rise above its past. And if another megacorp claimed the Ark, with that kind of power, with that kind of technology, the edge might well allow them to overtake the entire Conglomerate. Void—they could well challenge Mizraim itself.

“We should leave Gehenna,” Knight said, though his underlying emotions drove at her core. Lust and desperation and… loneliness?

“Soon. I just need a bit more time.” Her voice sounded husky in her throat. She tried to focus. They’d really done it. He’d helped her get perhaps the most precious relic in the universe. He’d kept her alive and…

Knight moved to stand directly in front of her, and she felt her eyes drift down to his tight muscles. With him standing less than a meter away, she could see the faint lines of scars marring the otherwise perfect abs. Those weren’t just battle wounds. That crisscross of lightened skin had to come from torture. Angels above, what had this man been through?

She brushed her fingers over the scars and he shuddered. His lust surged, flowing through her like fine wine. She knew she was drunk on it. Dangers of empathy. If she didn’t push him away now she wouldn’t be able to stop… What was… Her heart trembled, her eyes blurry and intoxicated. Impossible to say where his desire ended and hers began.

She couldn’t do this. Shouldn’t…

She leaned back, pressing into the couch as he straddled her and began unbuttoning her shirt. Warmth and hunger and even pain filled her as he squeezed one of her breasts hard.

It had been so long.

Knight was dangerous. This was wrong. She still loved David…

“I can’t give you children…” she heard herself say. Not now. Not like this… Someday. Maybe.

An edge of disappointment jabbed at her, like stepping on a barb, but it faded. His hands grabbed her hips and pulled her to lay flat on the couch, then began to pull off her pants.

“There’s time for that later,” he said.

It was all too much.

It was all too much what she needed.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Everyone reads the Codex, but most never truly think about what it says. Mankind was supposed to live on a paradise called Eden, our homeworld. They said waters ran clear and humanity lived in peace, spreading to the edges of our solar system. Eden represents the dream, the delusion that there was once a time and place where humanity stood as one. We are taught we were cast from Eden for our sins. I doubt not that Eden existed, but rather whether it was truly paradise.

The last of the smuggler ships had thought to escape around the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Maybe they thought their ship’s lower mass could break free more easily than the Logos. They were wrong.

David sat in the pilot’s chair, his teeth clenched, watching the smuggler ship fall into the hole. One agonizing second at a time its light faded away, slipping into the void of nothingness. Oblivion. David’s stomach lurched, though he tried not to show the crew.

Captain Waller stood grimly for a moment. At well over 200cm, the Anakim was like a pillar of power when he stood on the bridge. Everyone looked up to him—literally. “Well, that’s done. Maybe now we can get some real orders.” With that, the captain strode off the bridge.

But David remained where he was, eyes fixed on the horror before him. His mind knew he’d never really see them fall in—the ship grew dimmer on the boundary of the event horizon, but the process would seem to take eons to him. The black hole was distorting time from the perspective of those outside the event horizon. The smugglers fell slower and slower, until their motion stopped altogether.

At least, that was how it looked to the crew of the Logos. From the smugglers’ perspective, though, he knew they were falling. They’d know by now they could never escape. Nothing escaped. Not even light. They could delay the inevitable, but sooner or later, the tidal forces would rip them apart, stretching them like strands of noodles. And then all they were would feed the singularity, becoming one with the nothingness. Become the void.

“Commander?” Lieutenant Dana asked, her voice chipper. “Are we leaving? Because I’d be very happy to go, much as I’d miss this place.”

David swallowed, looking at the cold-worlder just to force his eyes from that thing. Her skin was pale, nearly white. Cold-worlders—Icies as some insultingly called them—had no natural color to their hair either, but Phoebe had dyed hers with pink highlights. “Aye, Phoebe. We’re going.”

A twist of his joystick brought the Logos around, heading back for the Conduit Gate. Man wasn’t meant to understand Angels, he knew, but still, he had to wonder why they’d ever build a gate to the galactic core—a supermassive black hole that would devour all matter, even light itself. He tried to remind himself that the singularity wasn’t evil, it just was. A smaller version in the ship’s core was driving all the systems of the Logos, was driving all full-size ships. They were necessary forces of creation, harnessed by the Angels. Like a sun. Vital to life, but don’t get too close. That was all.

There was no reason for his nightmares about falling in. About the slow descent into inevitable oblivion. About knowing all he was would slip out of existence, perhaps his very soul lost. No one was sure if even a soul could escape to heaven from the event horizon. The Codex only ever said not to cross one. Good advice.

The Conduit gate opened. It revealed a tunnel through space, shimmering in every conceivable color, some mankind had never named. The Conduit always reminded him of ice caves on Ekron, though iridescent and almost liquid-liked.

He punched the joystick forward, diving in, his psionic senses immediately flaring to life. Tame outside the Conduit, they became super-charged in it. It was the network connecting the universe, and he was a part of it.

Infinite passageways unfolded in his mind. He had to choose quickly, because tidal forces here would drag them off course if they dawdled. In the Conduit you always had to be moving forward. Falter, second-guess yourself, delay—and you could be lost forever.

This was no place for doubt. No place for questions. This was the depths of the universe. A non-psychic trying to pilot this would become overwhelmed, lost or destroyed in moments. But people like David—or Rachel—they could feel the way through. They could see the paths as they opened, react quickly enough to choose the road.

He pushed her from his mind. No place for questions.

Time began to lose meaning here, too. Lost in infinite pathways, his mind so deep in the psychic trance, it could be easy to lose track of passing hours. It was like dreaming—you could never be sure if you’d lost a minute, an hour, or longer.

He pulled on the joystick, taking a fork toward the Ekron System. It was close, and they could use the relays there to get new orders from the Sanhedrin. The ship lurched as he approached the Gate. There was little visual marker, just a variance in the shimmering of the Conduit, but a Psych could feel the Gate.

As he approached, it burst forward like a bubble breaking, revealing normal space. The Logos jumped out of the Conduit and his ears popped. Their motion didn’t really slow, but it felt like it.

The sudden diminishing of his psionic senses was like being submerged in water, and it always left him woozy for a few heartbeats. For the infinite instant he flew the Conduit, he was one with the universe—like an Angel himself. And the sudden loss of it always made him want to weep, at least for a moment—that transition back to reality. No one spoke.

He shook it off and rose.

“Lieutenant, you have the bridge.”

“Yup, yup,” Phoebe said.

David found the captain in the war room. Waller always liked to wait in here. He was seventy-five, but his Anakim strength and stamina made him seem younger, and David had seen the fire in his heart. He had a thick salt-and-pepper beard and a strong head of hair.

“We’ve reached Ekron,” David said.

The captain scrubbed his beard. “Send a message to the Tabernacle.”

“Sir.” David turned to leave.

“McGregor,” Waller said, and David turned back. “Is this how you want to spend your time? Chasing smugglers into black holes?” Waller leaned heavily on the table, as if weighed down by his own words.

David turned. “Sir?”

“This ship was meant for more than that, don’t you agree?”

“Aye, sir.”

Waller sighed and sat at the table. “I should have been admiral by now. I was up for it last year, did you know that? Passed me over for… well, that doesn’t matter. Why should they choose me? What have I done lately but chase petty criminals around? We should be out there on the border, preparing for whatever the Asheran Confederacy plans.”

The Asheran Confederacy. Bloody bastards violated the First Commandment. Everyone knew it, even if the Sentinels lacked hard proof. For decades they’d pushed the boundaries, and sooner or later, someone would have to push back. Someone had tried.

“Sir. You know about my mother.”

Waller fixed him with an unnervingly steady gaze. “Everyone knows about it, McGregor. But I’ve seen you’re a good officer, and I’d wager what happened to the Balthazar wasn’t her fault. I knew her, you know, and she was a fine captain. It’s Asherah. They’re to blame for the whole incident.”

“Aye, sir.” David had never doubted it. Naomi McGregor had been a hero until the Balthazar Incident, and everyone blamed her for the loss of the ship to Asherah. Maybe he’d never know what happened, but David knew it wasn’t her fault.

“It should have been considered an act of war,” the captain said, then sat down. “I lobbied for it back then—I wasn’t a captain yet, so my voice didn’t count much. Instead we continue this half-wit standoff. They’re heretics, rebels. Mizraim is the legitimate heir to the Days of Glory, and all humanity should be united under us.”

Was all this an invitation to sit? David decided to take it as one, and sat across the table. “I’ve got more reason to hate Asherah than most, Captain. But you can’t really be suggesting we start a war? The Days of Glory ended six hundred years ago. The Asheran Confederacy may only control four galaxies, but taking those from them would be—”

“Glorious. That’s the kind of act one needs to draw the eyes of the Sanhedrin. You think an Imperator cares about what we’re doing here?”

“Aye, I suspect Vibbard does.” Imperator Vibbard oversaw the Milky Way, and would look kindly on Sentinels helping keep order there.

Waller waved the comment away. “McGregor, you know which captains they watch? Those on the borders. Those making strides for the Empire, not chasing down smugglers.” Waller paused. “I feel you disapprove, Commander.”

Shite, was the captain in his head? David thought he’d know if the man was actually reading his mind, so probably he was just sensing his emotions. “Sir, I don’t disapprove, I only feel it’s not our place to question our orders. The work we’re doing here isn’t glamorous, but it does matter. We’re keeping order in the Empire.”

“You have to be bold, man. You know that. After what happened with your mother you still joined the Sentinels. So what? You got where you are at your age by playing it safe, by doing only what others asked? You want to make captain yourself someday? Trust me, it’s the bold actions those politicians see.”

The shift in the conversation had become a wee bit too uncomfortable for David, but what could he say? He doubted Waller would actually disobey orders, but his words certainly tread close to that line. “Aye, Captain.”

Waller sighed. “Get me a line to the Tabernacle, McGregor. Dismissed.”

David rose and returned to the bridge, passing the order to connect the Mazzaroth to communications. The twenty-three Imperators of the Sanhedrin would inevitably bicker over where to send the Logos, ignoring any input Waller gave. They each had their own galaxy to worry about, and rarely took the big picture into account. Maybe that was why the Shekhinah was in charge. Still, part of him hoped they’d listen and send the ship to the front.

Or to the Pegasus Dwarf. Out there, beyond the Empire, Rachel was liable to get herself killed. If they sent the ship there, he could look in on her and her insane plans. And maybe, just maybe, he could save more than her life. Maybe he could salvage what they should have had.

He headed down to his quarters and sat on his bunk. His uniform—really a nanomesh armor suit—wasn’t too uncomfortable, but best be out of it. He drew his thumb along the line of the chest piece and it separated, the nanobots unbinding so he could remove the jacket, then did the same with the pants, careful to remove his pulse pistol from the thigh holster first.

It came down to that uniform, didn’t it? It had meant so much to him, he’d lost Rachel. Sure, there’d been others before and since, but she was something special. Infuriatingly special, sometimes. She always knew what he was thinking, what he was feeling, and not just from being an empath.

Once, she’d rented rafts for him on his birthday, to ride the canals across New Rome. Out there, on the canal, alone with her, that had been peace. And he’d buggered it all up.

Or she had.

But the truth was, he still couldn’t see why. Most Sentinels had families back home. Waller had five children, didn’t he? If Rachel would have waited for him… but that wasn’t who she was.

Maybe he loved her for that, too.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

September 26th, 3096 EY

Eden was destroyed, or so the Codex tells us. The Adversary came and wiped out all of our off-world colonies, then moved in on our homeworld itself. They, or It, killed three quarters of all humans in the universe, and then the Angels came. They fought the Adversary and drove it off, then ignited the Exodus, taking mankind from the smoldering wasteland that had been Eden.

Waller had gotten his wish, or else he’d made an impression on one of the Imperators, because the Logos had been sent to the outer galaxies. David wasn’t the only one who could pilot the Conduit—Waller could do it himself if he wanted—but he was the best, which meant by the end of the day he was exhausted.

Flying between galaxies was exhilarating, but a long process, and draining. Every second required precise concentration. The Conduit branched endlessly, and though there were fewer branches between galaxies, the price for a wrong turn was even steeper. A single mistake could throw them all so far off course they’d be lucky to ever find themselves again.

David caught himself working his way down to the Med Bay, as much to work out the mental tension as anything. He couldn’t sleep so soon after flying. His psionics were out of whack, and his adrenaline pumping, his nerves shot. A day like this meant either winding down first, or lying in his bunk awake.

Leah was there, bent over her data pad. So preoccupied in her research her hair had fallen to one side, revealing her gills, which she usually tried to hide.

“What’s a nice lass like you doing here at this hour?”

She spun on her chair, immediately patting her hair back in place. “David. Hi. I, uh… I was just studying those samples we picked up back in the Milky Way. You want to hear about it?”

“Alien bacteria… Not really my forte, lass.”

Her face fell a bit, and she just nodded. “Right, of course. Did you need something?”

“Just to relax a bit.”

“Oh. Well then… Uh, sit down. You want to sit?” She waved at another chair and flashed a warm smile.

David took it and kicked his feet up on her table, earning a slight downturn of her mouth. He laughed, but it felt forced.

“Something’s on your mind, David. I can always tell.”

“I told you about Rachel…”

She sighed. “Right. Your ex.”

“She’s in a spot of trouble, and I can’t stop thinking about her.”

“You could try,” she mumbled.

“What?”

Leah shook her head, then folded her hands behind her back. “As your doctor, I’d advise you to let the past go. Stress causes most of the medical problems we see in Sentinels, and it’s one of the hardest things to treat well.”

“Aye? That simple, eh?” He smirked. “Might be, save she called me a bit back. She’s caught herself up in investigating the Sefer Raziel, if you can believe that.”

“Sorry?”

“A book, probably a myth, anyway. Point is, she’s just as likely to get herself killed as find it.”

Leah leaned forward. “I’d say the point is how you feel about it.”

“I dunno, really. She’s still doing all the same things that drove us apart. She’s got to push every boundary.”

“Huh. I know a Calnehian commander kind of like that.”

Oh, wonderful. Now she was comparing him to Rachel. “It’s not funny, all right?” And he was nothing like that. He worked hard to prove himself, to redeem his family name. Not to unravel the fabric of society. “You’re supposed to be my best friend, right?”

She nodded. “Always.” Something tingled at the edge of his psionic senses, but he couldn’t pinpoint it.

“So tell me what to do.”

Someone coughed. David spun to see the captain, and rose quickly with a salute. “Sir.”

The captain waved them to their ease. “Just a headache.”

“Yes, sir,” Leah said. “Where?” The captain indicated his temples, and Leah pressed a pain tab to the spot.

It dissolved instantly, and a look of relief washed over Waller’s face. “Thank you, Suzuki. Carry on.” The captain nodded at David, then left.

David fell back in his chair. Just what he needed. The captain overhearing his romantic woes.

Leah flashed him an awkward smile that pretty much summed up how he felt. “Look, David. If it’s over, it’s over. Sometimes things just don’t work out no matter how much we want them to. Everything seems like it’s going great, seems like it’s time for marriage, the Third Commandment maybe, and then… But sometimes it just isn’t what we thought and the other person is…” She sighed and shook her head. A throbbing built in his psionic senses, a sudden awareness of some buried pain. Odd, now he thought about it, Leah rarely spoke of her past.

And he didn’t usually read people like that. Situations, immediate threats, sometimes warnings about the future. And of course the Conduit. But even Rachel was a better empath than he was. David rubbed his temples. Maybe that was what gave the captain these headaches. Uncontrolled, unexpected bursts of emotions from members of the crew.

Leah talked like someone speaking from experience, but he didn’t want to press. If she wanted to tell him about it, she would. They’d known each other a long time. She was in his class at the Sentinel Academy, even though she was several years older. She’d started later than most, but he’d never asked why the sudden career change.

“You still love her?” Leah asked after a moment.

“Aye, I think maybe I do. Seeing her again, all those old feelings came back and I just… No matter what, even if it is over, I don’t want to see her get hurt. But I also don’t approve of all she’s doing.”

Leah pursed her lips. “David, you define yourself through discipline, order, duty. She sounds like the opposite. I have to be honest, it doesn’t sound like something that would ever work. One of you would have to bend, maybe break. Opposites may attract, but matter and anti-matter still annihilate each other.”

Maybe she was right. Maybe all he could do for Rachel was help where he could and stay out of her way. She was the whirlwind, sweeping over all she touched, always changing it, never staying, never pausing. Never yielding.

Whatever drove her was something maybe he couldn’t understand. Maybe no one could, or maybe he wasn’t the one for her. The thought sent his pulse pounding through his head again. It rang of bitter truth, despite the beautiful memories they’d shared together. But if they weren’t meant for one another, why couldn’t he stop thinking of her?

Leah sighed. “So, the Asheran border?”

“Aye.”

“Guess I may need Med Bay for something more than treating headaches and heartaches soon.”

“Aye.”

Whatever insane mission Rachel had given herself, he had his own. He had an Empire to uphold. The heretics in Asherah pushed out their borders, maybe even violated the Commandments. And they’d murdered David’s mum. Justice, long-delayed, would find them.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

September 28th, 3096 EY

The quiet, the moments between trying to decode the Sefer, they give me too much time to think. If the Adversary attacked mankind thirty-one centuries ago, why have we never seen it since?

The Logos shot out of the Conduit Gate to the Akeldama System. David’s senses blurred from the sudden psionic deadening. The disputed system was clearly within Mizraim domain, but Asherah had questioned that claim for years—probably because of the ore-rich asteroid field nearby.

An Asheran Leviathan passed among that asteroid field, escorting a mining ship.

Waller growled, really growled. He stood beside David’s chair, watching the display screen. David set his jaw, barely surprised by the captain’s wrath, almost sharing it.

He shook himself. “Should we contact them?”

“That’s a Leviathan, a heavy battleship. You don’t send a battleship to protect a mining vessel unless you’ve come for a fight.”

“We’re a battleship, too.” David activated the holo display field, showing the system in three dimensions around the pilot’s chair. The Leviathan hadn’t made a move, still remained partially concealed behind the asteroid field.

“So we are,” the captain said. “Dana, target the Asherans.”

Phoebe’s pale eyes glanced back at David. “Both of them, sir?”

“It’s time we made it clear this system belongs to the Empire.”

David took a deep breath, then steered the ship among the asteroids, dodging the rocks. The Singularity Drive created kinetic shielding that would distribute the energy of impacts, but pelting the ship with asteroids would still damage it.

“Should I fire a warning shot, sir?” Phoebe asked.

“Yes, Dana,” Waller said. “Warn them with all ten pulse cannons, and missile tubes one through a hundred and twenty.”

“Sir. They’ll get the message.”

The Leviathan must have detected her target lock, because it leapt into sudden motion. The Logos hummed with energy as the pulse cannons and missiles fired. Phoebe must have focused fire on the Leviathan, since only a handful of missiles targeted the miner.

“Warning delivered, Captain,” Phoebe said.

David cruised through the asteroids, trying to give her clear shots. Missiles launched from the Leviathan, intercepting the Logos’s warheads. Defensive laser batteries carved out others, but the holo registered at least ten impacts.

David jerked the ship, trying to keep asteroids between them and enemy missiles. “They’re returning fire!”

Phoebe activated the Logos’s own defense batteries, annihilating most of the barrage. One slipped through. The impact blasted along the starboard side but sent a shudder through the entire ship. The kinetic shielding barely kept the matter-antimatter explosion from ripping a hole in the hull.

“Launch drones!” Waller said.

David tapped his console, sending out forty remote fighters. From the pilot’s chair he could reasonably control ten, twenty in a pinch. He took ten and assigned the others to fighter ensigns.

Plasma toroids rocked over the Logos. There was no shooting those down, and evading meant keeping asteroids between the two ships. The toroids ravaged the kinetic shielding, overwhelming it with thermal energy. If a missile hit them at the same time…

Dave steered the Logos behind an asteroid the size of a small moon.

“Prep the ion cannons,” Waller said. “Use the MAGs to clear a path.”

“We have to let the shields stabilize!” David said.

“Then get those drones targeting that miner. I do not want them escaping. It’s time to make a statement.”

A statement had been made already, David expected. They had opened fire on a battleship. And the surge of terrible adrenaline was like a tonic. These people had destroyed the Balthazar, killed his mum. Retribution, served cold, was inevitable.

David reached into the hologram, his fingers contacting the image of the drones. With a shift of his wrist, or a jerk of his arm, he sent five of them targeting the miner. It would be enough to distract the Leviathan while the rest of the drones intercepted missiles.

“Ion cannons charged,” Phoebe said. “But there’s an energy buildup on the—”

A particle beam shot from the Leviathan at the asteroid David hid behind. The ion stream traveled at close to the speed of light. There was no evading, and no matching that destructive power. The beam struck the asteroid, releasing an instant torrent of explosions. As the thermal energy built, the asteroid sundered, even before David could get out from behind it. The sudden explosion hurled massive chunks of rock onto the Logos, pelting the hull.

The impacts overwhelmed the kinetic shields. Hull breaches flared all over David’s display. Angels above, anyone in those sections was already dead. The readings indicated dozens of power ruptures. God only knew how many would be injured.

“Return fire!” Waller shouted.

Two ion cannons erupted, sending their own barrage of particles at relativistic speeds into the Leviathan. Unfortunately, the weapons drew enormous energy. The Singularity Drive could generate near limitless power, but only so much at one time. What was left of the kinetic shielding flickered out.

“Captain!” David flew as erratically as he could, trying to keep behind cover again.

An ion stream punched through the Leviathan’s shielding and ruptured the hull. A cascade of explosions rushed over the craft from bow to stern.

“Bring us in there, MAG cannons ready,” Waller said. “All MAGs fire.”

The Leviathan tried to head for the Conduit Gate on the system’s edge. The miner had already reached it and was slipping out of the system. The Leviathan launched more missiles while recalling its fighters. Its missiles were barely targeted, a barrage of distractions that would, nevertheless, cripple the Logos if even a few of those hundred struck.

“Drones, full defense,” David ordered. He moved his own drones into position, shooting down missiles all around. Phoebe’s laser batteries cut down a few others. One slipped past the ensigns’ drones. The ship shook. Another hull breach registered on David’s display. More good men, probably dead.

Eighty MAG cannons sent an endless stream of slugs at the Leviathan. At first, kinetic shields sent the rounds skittering off, then they started to punch through, creating hundreds of minor hull ruptures. A hundred-meter-long section of the Leviathan’s hull ripped away from decompression, flinging men and debris into space.

“Get a missile in there, Dana,” Waller said.

Phoebe fired from what David guessed were the last loaded missile tubes. The Leviathan’s laser batteries shot down ten, maybe twenty. But one missile rammed right into that hull breach. An antimatter explosion blew out both sides of the Leviathan, and the ship’s power went dead.

Asteroids collided with the ship, punching more holes in the hull.

“Pulse cannons.”

Phoebe followed Waller’s orders. The pulse cannons unleashed a barrage that engulfed the Leviathan in explosive energy. A second later, the entire ship detonated.

They had just destroyed a Leviathan. Angels above, they’d just destroyed a Leviathan. The Asherans claimed their battleships were invincible, and the Logos had taken one out.

But at what cost? Based on the holo display, David would guess the Logos would be vulnerable for days. And the lost crew? How many were dead? A hundred? More?

David piloted the Logos out of the asteroid field. It would take days, maybe weeks to repair the damage done in this battle. As far as he knew, it was the first full scale battle between a Leviathan and a Tribulation class Sentinel warship since…

His mother.

For most of his life he’d hated the Asherans because of her, because of what they’d done to the Balthazar. He’d spent his life without a mother, and his career in the shadow of a captain considered a failure. And now he’d blown the void out of a Leviathan.

“Did we just start a war?” David asked.

Waller turned away and left the bridge. But David thought he’d caught a glimpse of the man’s emotions, his own psionic potential maybe reaching out. A silent promise with no record. The promise that, if they hadn’t yet, they would.

David’s throat was dry.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

October 2nd, 3096 EY

Why did the Angels never teach us their language? Why retain their unfathomable symbology? They gave us technology, or pieces of it, but never quite revealed all their secrets. They told us just enough to allow us to build intergalactic ships harnessing singularities, and yet, everyone knows they held back. Redeemers claimed they kept back what mankind was not meant to know. I’d expect they merely never wanted us to become a threat to them. And they enforced their will with their dreaded secret police, the Gogmagog. Of all the Races of Man, only the Gog and the Magog are universally hated and feared. It was the Gogmagog that sought out those who opposed the Angels and exiled them to worlds like Gehenna.

Repairs had been underway for four days. They didn’t dare take the Logos back into the Conduit until such activities were complete. No matter how good a pilot he was, David wouldn’t take a chance in there unless he had no choice. If something went wrong, if the course was lost inside the Conduit, God knew where they’d end up. Some said the Conduit folded in on itself infinitely, that once lost you could fly its pathways for all eternity and never find your way out.

David’s ear comm flared. “McGregor, I’ll see you in my quarters.”

He hadn’t seen much of the captain in the last few days. Why would Waller summon him like this? Though the captain’s quarters were just down the hall from his own, he’d never even seen the inside of them. David strode through the passageway and buzzed Waller’s door.

It slid open after a moment, and he stepped inside and saluted. The captain had the lights low. Dozens of photographs decorated the walls. An older woman with long hair stood among young children. Further down the wall, those children grew older and older, until finally, they stood with children of their own. The captain’s grandchildren.

Waller sat at a table and motioned for David to join him. The Codex was there, a fine leather-bound copy, opened to a page illuminated in the old style.

When David had sat, Waller folded his arms. “Commander McGregor.”

“Captain?”

“How soon until we’re ready to head out?”

David scratched his head. “We could probably take the Logos back in tomorrow, if we had to. Better if we wait an extra day, though. The Asheran ion cannon is a bit more powerful than our own.”

Their plasma cannons were clearly meant to emulate Sentinel pulse weaponry, but they did a mediocre job of it at best. Still, there were rumors of handheld ion rifles. If that were true, the Asheran Confederacy clearly had a leg up in some areas of weapon’s design.

Waller shook his head. “They’ve broken the Covenant.”

Maybe. Hard to be sure without prisoners to examine. “Is there evidence I haven’t seen?”

The captain scoffed. “McGregor, please. Everyone knows cybernetics are rampant in the Confederacy.” Everyone claimed that, and, honestly, David believed it. But believing and proving were different things.

“The Sentinels need every edge to face such a foe, McGregor. They’re a threat to the very fabric of our society. A threat to the entire human race, even. They must be brought to heel.”

David nodded. He had no love for the Asherans, but he didn’t need to tell the captain that.

“I’d hate to think you’ve been holding out on me.”

What the bloody void? “Sir?”

“It’s probably best if you tell me all you know about the Sefer Raziel, McGregor.”

David’s mouth hung open. How did the captain know about that? He felt a bit lightheaded. The Med Bay?

“That’s an order, Commander.”

David shut his mouth. No choice now. He’d never disobey his captain. Order, duty, loyalty. These things were who he was. He was a Sentinel. He was a soldier. “Sir. The Sefer Raziel is a possibly mythical book written by the Angel Raziel some time prior to the Vanishing. It’s said to contain secrets of the Angels, including, possibly, the hidden location of the Angel’s Ark.”

Waller leaned forward, locking David with his blue eyes. “And where is it, Commander?”

Rachel. If he told, Rachel’s situation could become even more complicated. If facing down the Redeemers weren’t enough, now she’d likely have the Sentinels after her. And how could he betray the woman he loved like that? How could he place her in danger?

Acid burned in his stomach. His psionics flared, and for a brief moment, he saw her face, alone and afraid.

He had no choice.

She was running down a polluted street, running from someone trying to hurt her.

But there was no choice. None. He was a Sentinel. He was duty. And he could not break his oath. He could not, God save his soul. “Possibly on the world Gehenna, in the Pegasus Dwarf Galaxy. I have reason to believe the Lazarus Group is searching for it there.”

“And your friend.”

“Aye, sir.”

“And you were going to tell me this?” The captain’s words seemed almost a growl.

“I didn’t believe it relevant. Sir.”

Waller leaned back at last, scrubbing his beard. “Not relevant?” He slammed his hand on the table, the sudden motion making David jerk. “If the Sefer, or God forbid the Ark, falls into the hands of another government, do you have any idea what that will mean, McGregor? Whoever controls it would be able to unravel the mysteries of creation. With that kind of power we could crush Asherah! The Ark could change the course of human history, and if someone else finds it first, it won’t be in our favor.”

“Aye sir. If you believe it exists at all.”

“I’m not willing to take that chance! Set course for Gehenna first thing tomorrow, as soon as we’re able.”

David shook his head slowly. “Captain, we’ve no jurisdiction there.” And Rachel… If she was already in trouble, the last thing she needed was Waller after her prize. A sudden flutter in his stomach left him woozy, and a sense of danger almost toppled him from his chair. She was in danger, or she would be. He could feel it. His vision had been real. His heart told him it was. Normally, he wouldn’t sense these things unless in the Conduit. “Gehenna is an independent world. We can’t just—”

“I don’t want to hear shit about jurisdiction, Commander. We’re talking about the fate of the universe.”

David tried to keep a straight face at the hyperbole. “Captain, we’d be starting something we might not be able to contain. We should at least contact the Tabernacle—”

“I already have. You have your orders, Commander. Bring me the Sefer.”

Angels above, the Sanhedrin had sanctioned this. His own government had ordered them in. Maybe he could do nothing for Rachel. But he’d have to try.

Waller had heard him mention it all to Leah. This was his fault. Waller wouldn’t have left the Asherans until he’d taken them out, that much was clear. But with the Leviathan gone… How long ago had he contacted the Tabernacle? Had it taken them this long to sanction the mission?

David stood and saluted.

“Dismissed.”

At that, he spun on his heel and trod out into the hall. It took a conscious effort to keep walking, head high. A wave of psychic disruption tugged at his mind, a siren of impending doom. They were set on a course that would alter everything, and for the life of him, he couldn’t see where it would end. But without a doubt, the feelings would strengthen in the Conduit. Maybe he’d be able to sense his way free from there.

Until then, he had no choice. His paused at the door to his quarters, not waving it open. David scratched his head, then turned and went down to the Med Bay. Leah was there, examining a few people injured in the battle with the Leviathan. Twenty-two dead crewmen. Most of the injured had been long since healed, but a few of the worst cases Leah wanted to examine again.

So absorbed in her work, she seemed not to notice him. He waited quietly, his mind swirling with possibilities, all leading into darkness. Just after the battle, this place had been filled with burned, bleeding victims of their aggression. Never for a moment did he allow himself to doubt the Asherans deserved the results of their incursion, and every crewmen on this ship had taken the Sentinel’s oath, knowing what it meant. But…

“David?” Leah asked.

He hadn’t even noticed the rest of the crew leaving. “My psionics are flaring.”

She led him to an exam table and sat him down. “What do you mean flaring? What do you feel?”

“I’m sensing more than I should at my level. Like I did when I—”

“David, you’re thirty-two. That’s a little old for another ascension. You’ve reached your limit.”

He scratched his head. A migraine was building behind his eyes. A sudden warmth radiated off Leah, a single heartbeat of caring, deeper than he realized their friendship stretched. His vision blurred and the pain increased.

He took her hand, though she tried to slip it away, as if still afraid of the webs between her fingers. “Thank you for everything.”

“Of course, Commander.”

Commander? He withdrew his hand, unable to sense anything more from her. It was like an ascension, but she was right, he had to have reached his full psionic potential already. His last ascension had been, God, six years ago, maybe seven?

It was just the stress.

“When was the last time you had a good night’s sleep?” she asked.

David shook his head. He couldn’t even remember. Not since Rachel had called. She was going to get herself killed, and there was nothing he could do about it. He was a Commander in the Sentinels, a rank four psychic, and a Rephaite class pilot. And he was powerless.

“I’m going to give you something to help you sleep, David.” She handed him a tab. “Press this to your neck just before you lie down. And be sure to drink lots of water.”

“Aye, Doc.”

“And David… You know you can come to me with anything, right?”

“Aye lass, I know it.” He rose and returned to his quarters. Using chemical sleep aids wasn’t the best idea. Pilots sometimes had to take them, he knew, especially if they spent too much time in the Conduit. It could inflame psionic senses, but it’d never happened to him before. He was born to fly.

How long would it take to reach Gehenna? Ten days, at the most. And then he’d have to get that damn Sefer. He’d have to take it, and take away Rachel’s dream. And she’d never forgive him for that, would she?

He pressed the tab to his neck and fell back on his bunk. His consciousness fled quickly, but in the space between waking and dreaming, his mind’s eye filled with a vision of a blasted red world. Rachel held a book…

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Trying to decode this book is maddening. For two thousand five hundred years, Angels ruled us, and yet, I cannot even find any pictures of them. Why? There are drawings of winged, beautiful people, but no true photographs, no recordings. When I questioned this at NRU, I was told mankind was not meant to capture recordings of such glory. Instead, we saw the horrors of their creations, the Gog and the Magog, men and women as much animal as human.

Cryptic symbols swam before Rachel’s eyes. This had to be the Sefer Raziel, but the code was almost incomprehensibly dense. Either the Angel had intended for no human to decode the Sefer—which threw into question why he had left it at all—or else it was meant to take humanity a lengthy collective effort to unravel.

Rachel didn’t have time to allow for either possibility.

Knight’s small apartment had grown crowded quickly. He stayed out of her way, mostly, training on the mat in the corner, or disappearing outside for long stretches. But sleeping was an issue. There was only one couch, and as Knight had put it, it belonged to him. The moment of warmth they’d shared had evaporated like mist in the morning sun, and he’d become even more guarded than before. The wall was back around him, and twice as strong.

Angels above, why had she slept with him? Had she done something wrong, to drive him into darkness again? When she sensed anything at all from him, it was a mess of confusion and fear. And the truth was, she wasn’t sure what she’d wanted. She certainly didn’t believe in the Third Commandment—sex could be just sex. She’d needed the release, the intimacy. DNA was written like that. That was all.

Rachel found herself tossing and turning on a hard floor of questionable cleanliness, and waking with neck and back aches.

She sat on the couch at the moment—he let her use it during the day, thank God—rubbing her neck and looking at the same data for the thousandth time. She was an Angelologist, not a cryptologist.

She switched on the Mazzaroth and browsed her news feeds. It was still awash with reports of a skirmish between a Sentinel ship and the Asheran Empire. The doomsayers claimed war was inevitable, but Rachel had heard that before. Asherah and Mizraim had been on the edge of another war for decades, but neither side was likely to give up forty years of relative peace over a single engagement.

Was David involved? Was he safe? The reports said an Asheran battleship was destroyed and claimed a mining vessel took heavy damage. No mention of exactly which ships, or the fate of the Sentinel battleship involved.

“Mazzaroth off.”

She rubbed her eyes and turned back to the tablet before her. There were at least a thousand distinct symbols, which meant if this was any kind of alphabet, it was impossibly complex. There had to be some kind of reason behind the assignment of the symbols. They had to mean something.

The door opened, and Knight slipped back in, carrying dinner again. He’d gone to get more Asheran hot noodles from that place in Babel Bazaar. Really, Rachel preferred the experience of going out and trying new restaurants, but they’d agreed it was safer if she stayed out of sight.

He set her plate on the table and glanced at the holo coming off the tablet. For a moment he looked at the seat right beside her, and a slight but definite wave of pain radiated off him, making her queasy. He sat on the opposite side of the sofa.

What the void did he want from her? “See anything?” she asked.

He grunted, then looked down at the table, avoiding her gaze. “You owe me fifteen kesitahs for dinner.”

Rachel groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Just put it on my tab, Knight.”

He tore into his own plate of noodles. With a sigh, Rachel did the same. This was getting her nowhere. And neither was she making any progress on that book. “Knight,” she said between bites. “I think we might have been too hasty in withdrawing from the Lazarus compound.”

“Ten more seconds and we’d have been found by that Gibborim. I’m thinking that didn’t make us hasty.”

She slurped another noodle, almost unable to believe what she was about to say. “They’d been working on cracking this code for a while. A lot of people, maybe a team of cryptologists, using sophisticated equipment.”

“Obviously.”

Okay then. “If I had their research, it would make this go a lot faster.”

Knight looked up from his noodles and stared at her. “Yeah. You should have thought of that before we escaped, huh?”

“Yeah… I really think I need that research, Knight.”

He sat back and folded his arms over his black coat. “Shame about that.”

Damn, he wasn’t going to make this easy. But she was the one paying him. Why should she feel bad about ordering him to work for it? She’d tried to bring them closer. At least she’d keep telling herself that was the reason… and the man made her sleep on the floor, for God’s sake. “Let me say this again. I need to go back and get their research, Knight.”

“I figured if I just let you talk long enough, something stupid would come out of your mouth. What makes you think there’s anything left to find? The government was there, and if they didn’t want the research, they were after you. If they wanted the research, they have it. Either way, they sent a Gibborim, and you want to go back? There are less painful ways to kill yourself.”

She shook her head, trying to tune out the waves of irritation coming off him, but unable to cut out the anger, the hurt that lay beneath them. “Knight, otherwise this could take weeks or months to decode.” Or years.

He glared. “We don’t have that much time! It’s time we both got off this God-forsaken rock. If you can’t decode it, fine. Leave, bring it, whatever. Just get us out of here.”

“Really?” She rolled her eyes. “You think I paid you to come this far and give up? You think I went through the danger, the hell on this planet—”

“You have no idea what hell this planet has yet to show you.”

She stood, her heart racing, and glared down at him. He worked for her. So why was it so damn hard to just give him an order? “Knight, I need that research. You want your money? I need this job finished.”

For a moment, he watched her, eyes seeming to look deeper than she felt comfortable with. “Fine,” he said at last. “I’ll go. You stay here. If there’s anything left in that lab, I’ll find it.”

“I should come with you—”

“I’m better alone. You’d slow me down, and they’re already looking for you. Everyone is looking for you. You’re not to leave this apartment while I’m gone.”

She jerked back. Better alone? So now he didn’t even want her around? And who did he think he was, giving her orders? And yet, she found herself unable to argue. His emotions were cold, dark, and set. If he didn’t want her anymore, if they weren’t going to be friends, even, then so be it. Who was he to her anyway?

“Look, I’ll raise your pay another ten thousand—”

“More than that.”

God, she had to hope Galizur was going to cover this. “Twelve thousand, then.” Her own resources were running out, so if Quasar Industries didn’t pay she was out in the void.

Knight picked up his plate, then set it back down with a sigh and stormed out.

Rachel watched the door a long time after it closed. She’d lost her appetite, too.

CHAPTER TWENTY

October 3rd, 3096 EY

Oddly, I find myself missing Knight. It does, however, give me more time to think of him. There are eleven distinct subspecies of humanity, if one counts Psychs like myself—which is perhaps inappropriate given that Psychs now appear among all the Races. Regardless, not one race is supposed to have Knight’s level of reflexes. At least no Race supposed to be real…

The iridescent walls of the Conduit soared past the Logos. David was dimly aware of the barrage of colors as his mind reached out, combing the network of passages, seeking the pathways. Intergalactic space was so vast, but there were fewer branches in the Conduit out here.

Part of his mind remained locked on the unfolding paths before him, but part wandered, even when he tried to focus. Just as the Conduit amplified his psionic abilities, those abilities amplified his awareness of his own memories.

The Testament Flight School, in New Rome. Rachel was there, in a pink jacket with white pants. The zippers on her jacket sparkled like diamonds. He’d forgotten that.

“So I’m going to get a private lesson now, Mac?” she said, flashing him a smile. “What are you going to teach me? Any special maneuvers in mind?”

David had lots of maneuvers he’d like to go over with Rachel, but this morning really was supposed to be a flying lesson. “Slingshot around the moon and back. You ready to take the controls the whole way, lass?”

Rachel puffed out her lower lip. “Mac, I’m always ready to be in control.” She laughed and took off running toward the shuttle. As a senior trainee—not to mention a Sentinel—the school let him check out shuttles without an instructor. Once, Rachel had seen him as a rival. Now, though, she seemed to enjoy these private lessons as much as he did.

One day, he’d take her to the Conduit. That was the real test of a Psych pilot. But you couldn’t fly a shuttle in the Conduit. It wouldn’t even reach the Gate on the edge of the system, at least not in a timely manner.

David followed her, watching her hair stream behind her as she ran, laughing.

The shuttle was twelve meters long, a sleek, triangular wedge with a double seat cockpit. He pressed the key to pop the latch, and Rachel climbed in ahead of him.

The shuttle could hold eight passengers in the back, but it was empty today. Just him and her. He climbed in beside her. “Strap in.”

Belts secured them across the chest, then Rachel tapped the panel to close the cockpit. “Nervous?” she said.

David snorted. “I believe in you, lass. Besides, I’m here to take over if you bugger it up too badly.”

“Wow. Thanks for that, big guy.” She powered on the engines, grabbed the throttle, and started them down the runway.

“Start easy. Just get us in the air.”

“Not my first time, Mac.”

He raised his hands in surrender. Aye, she knew what she was doing. He snuck a glance at her thighs, shapely in her skin-tight flight pants.

“I felt that,” she said.

Damn empaths. But two could play at that game. David focused his psionic senses, projecting waves of sensual energy at her.

Rachel gasped, jerked back on the throttle, and hurtled them airborne. Her breath came in sudden gulps, and she looked over at him, pupils dilated. “Maybe not a good idea while I’m flying.”

“Aye, lass. Keep your mind on the task at hand.”

“Keep your mind to yourself, then.”

“Just be glad I’m not a telepath. I’d show you some things you’d not soon forget.”

Rachel leveled out the shuttle, building up speed. “Preparing to enter orbit,” she said.

“Aye, get your angle right.”

She adjusted their pitch a bit, then revved up the power. They shot through the atmosphere. A sparkling canopy of stars materialized before his eyes, offering him the same peace and wonder and awe they always did. Here was where mankind belonged. Planets had their own beauty, of course, but out here, in the vast stretch of the cosmos, it was like you could see the mind of God.

David swallowed and glanced at Rachel. She’d gotten caught up in his emotion, and was barely controlling the shuttle at all. “Rach.”

She shook herself and steadied their orbit around New Rome. Dozens of other shuttles were up here, not to mention hundreds of satellites, so she had to plot their course carefully. No one liked it if you flew too close.

David scratched his head and resisted the urge to offer advice or orders. This was her show. On the far side of the planet she broke away, heading for the larger of New Rome’s two moons.

She set a slow, steady pace, so he settled in. It would take several minutes to reach the moon at this rate. “Doing great, lass,” he said.

“There’s something so romantic about the aloneness up here, isn’t there?” she said. “I mean, you look out the window and there’s a billion stars and nebulae and all, but we’re thousands of kilometers from any other person. Just the mystery of the cosmos spreading out before us.”

He vaguely wondered if those were her feelings originally, or if she’d picked up his and made them her own. It didn’t matter. “Aye.” Because out here, there was something special. Out here, where the Angels had come from. Out here, where you could touch something so much bigger than mankind. It was… cosmic. There was no other word for it.

“Time to check the hold,” she said, her voice low and breathy. “I’ve got a maneuver to teach you now.”

David flipped on the autopilot.

He shook himself, jerking out of the memory and focusing back on the Conduit. He knew what came next, and indulging in it while flying, however pleasant the memory, was not a good idea. Captain Waller would not be pleased if they wound up in the wrong galaxy.

For hours, he stayed on the bridge, until at last the ship jumped through another Gate. It was still a ways to Gehenna, but he had to rest. He’d fry his psionics if he kept this up. There was only so much time in the Conduit a pilot could take. After almost a full day’s flight, the whole crew might be fatigued. The non-psychics much less, of course, but they’d feel it.

He left the bridge to Lieutenant Dana and retired to his quarters. Those had been his best days, back with Rachel. Aye, he’d never give up his uniform—that was who he was. He was one of the youngest commanders in the Sentinels, and he hoped to make captain by the time he was forty. His career was more than just a career. It was a definition of purpose.

But it might have cost him Rachel. He’d thought he’d come to grips with that long ago. But now they were flying to Gehenna. He was going to see her again, and most likely not on friendly terms. Would she ever forgive him for trying to take the Sefer Raziel away from her? If it existed, Waller would find it. David had no doubt.

He sat at his table and gingerly opened the Codex. There were always answers, if you knew where to look. He turned beyond the Covenant, to the later chapters on the purpose of humanity. The Angels claimed mankind was God’s great experiment. A test. Everything was a test. And that had always been a comfort before.

“Following the Age of Repopulation the Shekhinah was established to assist in governing the rapidly growing numbers of humanity…”

He couldn’t focus. This was supposed to be relaxing. Instead, his head throbbed. There was no sleeping, not so soon after dropping out of the Conduit.

Rachel.

He’d done his duty in telling Waller. He was a Sentinel, like his mum before him. He was a Commander, an officer. He had to follow his duty.

Rachel.

His heart raced. Focus on the words.

“The Shekhinah carried the voice of the Angels to the people, tapped directly into the Conduit…”

Damn it.

Rachel might die, and he was helping her toward it!

He flung the Codex aside and it collided with the wall. God, she’d never forgive him! All of this meant nothing—he was going to destroy her dreams.

A tremble ran through him, and he turned, realizing what he’d done.

The Codex, the words of the Angels, lay on the floor, its pages bent and splayed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Most of the subspecies of mankind, the Races of Man as some call them, were designed to adapt to extreme environments. Amphies could live underwater, making them ideal for deep-sea mining. Cold-worlders were adapted to frozen wastes. The Anakim could tolerate planets with extreme gravity. And Smoggers like David could survive almost any atmosphere, as could Smolders. And Knight… Why would the Angels adapt someone to be a killing machine? It sounds more like something I’d expect from Asherah.

Once, every answer had come from the Codex. Now David couldn’t bring himself to pick it up, instead pouring through file after file on the Mazzaroth. Once you started digging, the Sentinels actually had a decent amount of intel on Gehenna. It wasn’t all organized, though. David had run a search on Gehenna and the Pegasus Dwarf Galaxy, and had turned up a lot of interesting little details.

Like that Jericho Corp had apparently been funneling money into the planet, through several back channels, for years. Millions of credits, in fact, upholding the government. Why would a megacorp care about maintaining the government of an independent world—a seemingly corrupt government at that?

The answer was obvious. It wouldn’t. David scratched his head, staring at the screen. The only explanation he could think of for all this was that Jericho was the power behind Gehenna. Which meant a member of the Conglomerate was running a former penal colony, a world with next to no natural resources and even less strategic value, and going to fair lengths to conceal its ownership.

Why would they want the place? Was it possible they knew about the Sefer Raziel?

There were too many unanswered questions, and David didn’t like that at all.

“Show me Jericho Corp,” he said to the Mazzaroth.

The screen displayed a corporate rundown. Like all megacorps, it had independent sovereignty, and really only answered to the rules of the collective Conglomerate. David scratched his head. In a hundred and fifty years the Conglomerate had become a force to rival Mizraim or Asherah. Since they represented so much of the economy of mankind, even a powerful nation was hesitant to stand before them.

And if a corp like Jericho got the Sefer, got the Ark, Angels only knew what they’d do. They might well have the power to overthrow all established order. The technological advantage would finally allow Jericho to win out over Quasar Industries, for certain. But it was unlikely the corp would stop there. He could almost see it in his mind, the governments of the universe slowly becoming subservient to corporate interests. Bowed down to the mercy of an economic juggernaut in possession of the finest technology ever created.

There were reams of data on the corp.

“Audio overview,” he said.

“Jericho Corp was formed in EY 2582,” the computer said. “They are primarily a developer of nanotechnology and other medical technologies. Jericho Corp has endured frequent competition from rival Quasar Industries for the advancement of technology, in particular over Jericho’s patented biomesh armor, considered by some a successor to Quasar’s nanomesh technology. In EY 3093 Jericho underwent massive restructuring following allegations against several board members involving violations of the First Commandment.”

“Pause,” David said. “Details of last item on the screen.”

Three years ago the Redeemers had accused the Jericho board of directors of experiments violating the First Commandment. Several members of the board had stepped down, and the Chairman, Othniel Keese, had vanished. And then all those allegations had dried up.

“What the bloody void does that mean?” David mumbled. The Redeemers were always accusing people of something, that was nothing new, and they’d never been overly fond of nanotech—claiming it skirted the ethical line, at least when used in humans. Had Jericho really been experimenting on something worse than that, or was it just a nanotech project that had gotten particularly under the Redeemers’ skin?

And with Keese gone—God knew where—everything got swept under the rug.

“But what does this have to do with Gehenna?”

As expected, the Mazzaroth offered no explanation.

There was more happening on this planet than they knew, which meant they were flying blind into a tricky situation. David left his quarters and headed down the hall. He buzzed the door to the captain’s quarters.

A moment later, they slid open. David found Waller reclining on a couch, listening to bombastic music. Something from his home world, maybe. Waller was from one of those small mining worlds no one had ever heard of, owned by Zebulun, if he remembered right. Anakim had their own unique sense of music.

“Pause playback,” the captain said, and sat up. “McGregor?”

David saluted. “I’ve been researching Gehenna.”

“Always wise.”

“I have strong reason to believe the planet may be owned, in secret, by Jericho Corp.”

Waller sighed, then rubbed his beard. “The game gets more interesting, then.”

“Sir, we don’t know what the situation is. We cannot afford to antagonize the Conglomerate.”

Waller waved it away. “No. We’re too close. If they own it in secret, then in public they cannot complain of our actions. We have perfect deniability for interfering in their affairs. How were we to know?”

“But we don’t know why they want the planet, or why they’re keeping it secret. I’ve traced a lot of the dealings back to one of their executives named—”

Waller held up a hand. “Deniability, McGregor. I don’t want to know. And neither do you.”

“Sir.”

“Drop the issue and focus on finding the Sefer.”

David stilled his jaw and saluted. “Sir. With all due respect, I must object.”

Waller just raised an eyebrow.

Rachel was there. Duty or not, how could he let her fall? He had to be there for her. “My friend, the one you identified earlier, is a citizen of Mizraim, of New Rome. She’s conducting a civilian expedition, possibly on corporate authority. We cannot just—”

“Your objection is noted, Commander.” Waller waved him away. “And overruled. Dismissed.”

He couldn’t argue with Waller’s reasoning, but it rang false, even duplicitous. To deliberately ignore the evidence—something on Gehenna was off. Jericho Corp wouldn’t care about a world like that unless they knew something he didn’t. And if they were after the Sefer too, if they knew about it, maybe it was Sentinel duty to keep it from them. But Rachel was caught between too many factions, and he seriously doubted she understood them all.

Leah stood outside his quarters, hands behind her back. When he approached, she bit her lip. “So…”

Shite. “Sorry, I completely forgot about dinner tonight.”

Her eyes nictitated, the inner third eyelid blinking. He’d never figured out whether that was a sign of irritation or just confusion. “You’re not eating anything?”

“I will. Did you?”

She shook her head. “I could bring something from the mess.”

“Aye, bring it to my quarters, then.”

Her eyes opened a bit wider, and she rocked back. Then she nodded and headed off. Probably shocked he wasn’t taking his meal with the crew. But some things shouldn’t be said in public, and he was too tired anyway.

He sat down at his table and paged through more data on Gehenna and Jericho until his door buzzed. “Open,” he said, without looking away from the screen.

“We’ve got rainbow fish from Rehobath,” Leah said.

David glanced at her. “Your homeworld?”

“Yeah, I ordered six cases from Manna Products on our last supply run. The ship’s cook cracked one open tonight. I might have requested it.” She carried two steaming boxes, each filled with spicy smelling fish and crisp vegetables. Leah set one in front of David, then sat down across from him. “Jericho?”

“Aye.” It was good she was here. Leah was the one person who always listened. Well, besides Rachel. “I think they’re the ones really running things on Gehenna. I suspect the government there are just puppets.”

“We have no jurisdiction over Conglomerate worlds.”

“Aye. But the captain says since they haven’t made their claim public, they can’t well object to our presence.”

She speared the fish with her fork and took a bite. “Fine line, but I guess he’s right.”

“That’s not the only issue, though. If they took the world, they did it for a purpose. I can’t believe they’re going to take it well, if we just show up and start waving guns around.”

“I thought you liked waving your gun around?”

“It’s not funny, lass.” Well, aye, it was a bit funny, but he wasn’t going to show her that. “Half the universe is after this mystical Sefer that might be down there, and a person I care a lot for is between them and it.”

She nodded, slowly. “David, you’re a Sentinel. Your friend seems like she borders on being khapiru. You’re going to have to make a choice.”

Aye, and there was no choice. He was a Sentinel. But at the very least, he needed to tell Rachel about Jericho Corp.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

There were always rumors about a twelfth Race. A legend that the Angels had tried to create true successors to their own nature… but such things were impossible. Angels never did anything that could become a threat to themselves.

The apartment was oddly still without Knight around. Of course, he had often been gone for long stretches anyway, but back then, Rachel had been so focused on the Sefer she’d barely noticed. Now, even the thought of diving back in without fresh facts gave her a headache. God, if she could only get outside, get some space, see people.

But Knight was right. This place was too dangerous, especially with the government looking for her. He’d left her enough food for a few days, and that would have to do. So she sat on the couch, combing through news feeds, and watching the occasional vid, something she hadn’t done much in the last few years. A bit of mindless action, hot sex, and inane plot might be what she needed to come at this thing with a fresh viewpoint. And with Knight away, there was no one to catch her watching the guilty pleasures.

So why did she keep thinking about him? She was such a fool to sleep with him anyway. The man was a child, a selfish—and dangerous—brat. And she’d thought to make a connection with him? She must have gone off rotation.

And what if she’d driven him away with her moment of weakness? Did he want more from her? More than she could give? If so would he still be there for her?

They’d shared a single moment of passion, spurred by adrenaline and proximity. Pure reaction of the DNA. Nothing more. The truth was, she’d only ever really connected with one person. And even David had never really understood her. She’d thought he had… he should have. But she’d poured her heart out to him, tried to explain why finding these relics mattered so much. Why she had to open humanity’s eyes to the reality of their saviors.

At least she thought she did. Did knowing the truth in her heart make it her duty?

If she’d just kept her mouth shut, taught the classes she was supposed to teach, she might still be at NRU. Probably bouncing a baby or two on her knee by now. Her chest trembled and she wrapped her arms around herself. If she shut her eyes, she could almost see the infants.

Mac had said he could, in the Conduit. He could see their son—a son who could have been. Mac was a rank four Psych. He might have seen the real future, a future that could have been. She could have been a mother, could have given him the babies he wanted so badly from her. And had pride stopped her? Had her conviction that mankind was not bound to the Third Commandment kept her from something she should have wanted anyway?

God, had the Angels only ordered people to do what they wanted to do begin with? Populate the universe. Go forth and have so many babies mankind can never be threatened with extinction again. But the threat was long gone. No one even knew how many people populated the holy universe these days. Void, there were eleven distinct subspecies of mankind.

For centuries humans had bred as often as they could. Some remained monogamous, some still married, but many made it their mission to simply have as many children as possible, often with different partners every time. But David had wanted marriage.

The screen flashed with an incoming call. Mac. As if he’d felt her thinking of him. A flight of fancy, of course. No Psych could feel that from across galaxies.

She forced the tremor in her chest to abate and sat up straight, trying to crack a smile. “Receive.”

The vid paused and David’s face filled the screen. “Rach. Something you need to know. I’ve been doing some digging, and it looks like the Gehennan government might really be a front for a megacorp.”

Rachel almost jumped to her feet. What in the holy universe? If that was true she really was in deeper shit than she knew. “Which one?”

“Jericho Corp. Seems like an executive named Caleb Gavet is running the project, but I can’t be sure. You really should clear out of there, lass.”

“I can’t, David. I’m too close.”

“Other people know what you’re doing now.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You told someone?” She’d trusted him and he’d betrayed that trust?

“I didn’t have a choice, Rach. There are things you don’t—”

“End call!” The screen flickered off, returning to her vid, still paused. God damn him. A minute ago she was thinking of having his babies! And he’d betrayed her?

As if things weren’t bad enough without him turning on her. And now Jericho was after her, maybe even Mizraim. Did Galizur know about Jericho? The man always knew more than he said, didn’t he? Had the bastard let her walk in here, knowing the danger?

Quasar Industries had been engaged in a game of one-upmanship with Jericho Corp for centuries. The two purveyors of the most advanced technology in the known universe. What would they do to gain access to the Ark? The answer was obvious. Anything. Galizur would probably feed her to the Adversary itself if he thought it would get him the Ark. And Jericho cared about her even less. If they got the Ark… Angels, they’d bring the whole universe to its knees, without anyone even seeing it happen.

“Son of a bitch.” And now she was the one who was going to pay for all this. Without Galizur’s backing, she was truly screwed. She now owed Knight more than she could cover, and he was the last person she wanted turning against her. Whatever had happened between them, maybe she could fix it. She was going to need Knight, and somewhere, deep down, maybe he needed her, too. There was something deeply broken within him, her empathy told her that much. And Rachel was no counselor, but she’d help him if she could.

The screen flashed with another incoming call. She shook her head. “Not this time, Mac.”

But when she saw the screen, the name read Jeremiah Jordan.

A long breath escaped her and she fell back onto the couch. This day just kept getting better and better. If there was one person in the universe she did not want to talk to, it was her brother. But he wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of contacting her—they hadn’t spoken in years—unless it was damn important. She could ignore him, but then she’d always wonder…

No matter. She’d already hung up on one ass today, she could hang up on another if she had to.

“Mazzaroth, constrain camera on me.” No reason to let him see any more of her surroundings than she had to. Best if Jeremiah knew as little about where she was as possible. “Receive call.”

Her brother’s face filled the screen. His eyes looked a bit older, his spiked hair a bit longer, and he’d put on more muscle. Not that he’d been scrawny to begin with. He wore the Redeemer insignia, the man on bent knee, proudly on his breast.

His eyes judged her, as always.

“What do you want?” she said.

“It’s time for you to come home, sister. Father is worried about you.”

Sure he was. Angry, disappointed, ashamed. But worried. No. She didn’t think so. “Jeremiah, I don’t have time for this.”

“Yes. You’re very busy with your heresies and murders. Seven people are dead, Rach. Good men, servants of the Angels, dead because of you.”

A lot more than seven, unfortunately, but he didn’t need to know that. “No one forced them to come after me.”

“You forced them to, with your own actions.”

Right, round and round they went. “Who says my actions are wrong?”

He snorted. “The Codex, of course.”

She resisted the urge to rise and pace. “And who says the Codex is right about these things?”

“It’s the word of the Angels, given to them by God himself.”

She nodded. “And how do you know that?”

“Because they told us!”

“You don’t see anything worth questioning about that logic, Miah?”

Her brother shook his head. “No. It’s called faith. You’re family, Rach. Please, I’m giving you the chance to turn yourself in. I don’t want anything to happen to you, but I can’t protect you much longer. Come home.”

To be indoctrinated, to have all she was stripped away. “Thanks, but I don’t care to have my sins washed away at the price of the rest of my mind.”

“Surrender and I can make sure it doesn’t come to that. You’re my sister. You know how important Father is. We can help you, Rach. But you have to stop all this and come home.”

“No!” She was done playing by their rules. She’d made her own life, and she was going to live it. It was the only choice left to her. God, how she’d wanted him to believe in her back then. She’d begged him, pled with him to listen, but he heard nothing but the voice of their father. And some days, she almost heard it too—a gnawing doubt urging her to give in, to return. Because the universe was vast beyond measure and without family…

No. Jeremiah and her father deluded themselves, and she had to enlighten them. “If you send another Heart after me, you might just lose that one too. Cut your losses, bro.”

His skin flushed. “Do you even know who you’ve got protecting you? Oh, yeah, we know about him, sis. Ever ask yourself why he’s so prone to kill, so terribly adept at it? Maybe you should!” She could just imagine bits of spittle flying out of his mouth, the way they did when he raged.

But how did he know about Knight? Word must have gotten back to the Redeemers after that fight in the bar. “What the void are you even talking about?”

“Watch your mouth, little sister, or even I won’t be able to spare you.”

“Go to hell, Miah.”

“Rachel!” he shouted at her. “You want to know what you’ve gotten yourself into? This man, this Ezekiel Knight you seem to put so much trust in, was a government agent. He worked for that festering cesspool of khapiru that runs Gehenna. He was Gibborim, Rachel. A professional assassin whose sole responsibility was to kill anyone who got in the way of the oligarchy. You think you can trust him? Trust him more than your own kin? Rachel—”

“Mazzaroth off.”

A hollow lump formed in Rachel’s throat. Terrible pieces of the puzzle began to slip into place. Knight was the most efficient killer she’d ever seen. He had preternaturally fast reflexes and a penchant for destroying anyone who got in his way. Just like Jeremiah had said.

And God help her, she was living in his apartment.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

I have made a mistake. All that matters now is getting the Sefer away from here. I cannot allow Jericho to get their hands on it, no matter the cost.

A floor board creaked under her foot, and Rachel almost jumped as she paced around the stifling apartment. Five minutes ago, she’d nearly had a heart attack at the sound of the pipes running water upstairs.

Okay. She was all right for the moment.

She was living with an assassin who was likely using her on behalf of the government. Maybe killing his own people waiting for her to unlock the secrets of the Sefer.

And she’d slept with him. Angels above, what a fool she’d been. She’d let a moment of passion, of weakness, throw all her judgment to the wind.

Okay. Okay, that was done.

Knight wasn’t here. Maybe he’d really gone back to Machpelah, maybe not. Either way, she didn’t have much time. Could she trust him? No, she could never take that chance. She’d known, she’d known he was dangerous from the moment he killed those Redeemers. If she’d listened to her instincts then she wouldn’t be here now.

Of course, she might not have the Sefer either. She continued pacing around the room. She’d never sensed an intent to harm her in his emotions. His attraction to her had been genuine, but she was used to that—it came with being an empath. And sometimes she felt an undercurrent of warmth coming off him. Maybe he really did like her. But even if that was true, a man like that might still kill her, if ordered to. The truth was, even if he liked her, she couldn’t trust him.

He’d taken one of the mono swords and that whip-knife thing. She could take the other sword, but she’d probably just cut her own arm off trying to wield it. Damn. All she had was a MAG that didn’t work on this planet.

The moment she stepped outside, the government might find her. But if Knight still worked for them, they already knew where she was. She couldn’t stay here. She couldn’t.

She grabbed her MAG and the Sefer, pressed on her breather, and ran from the apartment. The airlock took ten times too long to open, and then she was on the darkened streets. A hint of illumination lit the red sky, so it must have been afternoon, though it was hard to tell through the thick atmosphere.

Passersby watched her from beneath head scarfs as she ran. She needed to move fast, but running would draw too many eyes. She darted into an alley and slowed her pace. Every few steps she found herself glancing over her shoulder. Hostility seemed to waft off the entire planet. It filled the city and choked her as surely as the atmosphere itself would. It seeped through her pores, suffusing her consciousness. The vile dregs of humanity threatened to consume her.

She caught herself running again, gasping for breath. It was her fear, only. No one watched. No one. Her breather felt too confining. If she could just remove it for a second…

She hailed a cab and jumped in. “Just drive. South district.” It didn’t matter where they went, just away from here.

The driver watched her from the rearview display, lust and rage oozing from him. Would he rape and murder her given the chance?

Her heart throbbed against her chest. She was panicking. She knew it. This was just a guy hard-on at work. She was letting fear drive her empathic senses into overload, fixating on every hint of a feeling. Her hand trembled as she reflexively brushed the MAG at her side. She had to get this thing working. It might be all that stood between her and God knew what fate.

Galizur’s company made the damn thing. Endbringer, indeed. Rachel told the driver to stop and paid him, not even sure where she was. She rushed from the cab, dimly recognizing the area. There was a trade tower nearby, with a pub on the first floor. She forced herself to walk to the airlock and hit the buzzer. No one knew she was here. No one would find her.

It whooshed open and she stepped inside. The pub was locally infamous for its stiff whiskey and bourbon, and back room services. The first time she’d been here, a waiter had tried to sell her a nanobot-induced orgasm. She’d politely declined, not even wanting to think about machines doing that to her nervous system.

After a few glances around the pub she strode over to the bar and slapped a kesitah chip on the counter. “Whiskey,” she said, her throat dry. “Strong.”

The bartender poured her a shot, and she downed it in one swig. The sudden burning in her throat and sinuses took the edge off her nerves. Another might simmer her down… No. It would dull her. She couldn’t afford that.

“I need a back room. Privacy.”

“Male, female, or nanobots?”

“Private, with access to the Mazzaroth.”

The bartender shrugged. “It’s your money. We can provide whatever you want.” He handed her a key card. “Down the hall, third room on the left, just passed the washroom. Left side, mind. Third on the right is for group play.” He said the last with a wink, and a burst of lascivious emotion that turned her stomach.

Rachel snatched the card and hustled to the door on the left. Across the hall, she felt waves of erotic energy rippling out from the room. Even through a closed door the emotions reached her, threatened to overwhelm her. A sudden weakness built in her abdomen, and for a heartbeat she considered going back to the bartender for those nanobots.

With a grunt, she opened the door to her private room and slammed it, disgusted with herself. Being an empath in a place like this, it could get the best of her. She slumped against the closed door and tried to let the edge flow off her excitement.

She turned on the Mazzaroth and sent a channel to Galizur. No one answered. Angels’ wrath, she was going to kill that bastard. For one moment, she wondered if he’d had any idea about Knight when he sent her to him. But, no, that made no sense. QI was a rival of Jericho. If Galizur knew Knight had been or was working for Jericho, he’d have never brought them together. She was still going to give him an earful for it, though. If her brother had figured it out, it meant the information was out there.

Her brother. Jeremiah had tried to warn her. He’d told her. He’d said if she came in they wouldn’t wash her sins. Nothing could be more horrible than that. The thought of losing all she was… Worse than death. To have her body go on, have everyone think it was her, when all that made her who she was had fled. If they caught her on their own, it’s what they’d do. Void, her father might order it himself. A telepath would be in her mind, violating her.

She sunk to her knees and hugged herself. She had the Sefer, but she couldn’t read it. She couldn’t reach Galizur, who might be her only ally. David had turned on her, shown his true loyalty, just like before. Knight was a monster. And Galizur… He either wasn’t in, or wasn’t interested in her call. Probably the former, since he expected her to get the Sefer.

But she might not have much time. Knight could come back at any point. She had to make a choice.

“Call Jeremiah Jordan,” she said to the Mazzaroth. She forced herself to her feet. She’d be damned if she’d face them on her knees.

Her brother’s face flashed on the screen a moment later. “Now you want to talk?”

“Sorry, Miah. I…” God, what was she doing? Saving her life. She didn’t want one of his lectures, but maybe that was the price to be paid. If she’d never left, if she went back now, could all be forgiven? Could she have a family back, if she’d pretend to believe? “They really wouldn’t try to wash me?”

“People are dead, Rach. This is about as serious as it gets.”

No shit. She didn’t want to be one of those dead people. “I need guarantees.”

“I’m your brother. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you, Rach. You know I’m a man of my word. Just turn yourself in.”

“I…” She could do it. It must mean there were already Redeemers here. All she had to do was go to them, and they’d get her off this planet. Maybe she should just let them have the damn Sefer, for all the trouble it had brought her.

“Rachel, just tell me where you are. I’ll come get you.”

“You’re here?” Her brother had come himself to Gehenna. He must love this place. “I’m…” They would take the Sefer. And it would never see the light of day again. They’d never destroy something made by the Angels, but it would be locked away waiting for the return of masters that were never coming back.

It was better than Jericho getting it, of course. To have the Ark hidden away damned mankind to stagnation, but at least it wouldn’t let this Caleb Gavet conquer the universe one transaction at a time.

But by handing over the Sefer, she was allowing Jeremiah to damn humanity. Which made her responsible. People would never reach beyond where they were now. They had barely progressed in the last six hundred years. At least outside of Asherah. And if they were really cyborgs there—though she had seen none in her time in Triangulum—then one day they would come and take the rest of the Local Group. Sentinels protected Mizraim through superior training and superior numbers—but one day Asheran technology would far outstrip anything the Sentinels had. They broke the rules and got ahead doing it. It was the way of progress. It was inevitable, if the Redeemers took the Sefer.

And, in the end, they’d wash her sins. That’s what they did with khapiru. Whatever her brother said, they’d blame her for the death of their own. And even if they didn’t, she had come so far to bring the Ark to mankind, not to let it fall to the Redeemers or Jericho Corp.

She grit her teeth and shook her head. “You shouldn’t be here, Miah.”

“Just tell me where you are!”

She was in hell. But Jeremiah’s wasn’t a hand she could take to escape it.

“Goodbye, brother. Mazzaroth off.”

The screen flickered dead.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

I was sixteen when I left my family. My own father called me khapiru because I refused to believe as others believed, because I refused to accept without proof. What he called faith, I called blind loyalty. But if the whole universe thinks me insane, maybe it’s not them. I walked out and I proved to New Rome I belonged there. I passed every test, I gave them no choice but to accept me into NRU. And at long last, I gave them the excuse to cast me from it. And now, with nowhere left to turn, I was actually considering returning to a family I had turned my back on. I find myself asking whether my pride is worth dying over.

With the bike secured in an alley, Knight stalked the streets of Machpelah, keeping to the shadows. All those years of training made him a ghost, silent and black. No one on the streets saw him unless he wanted them to.

It was the way.

The lights were on in the Lazarus Group’s bunker. There were probably government troops inside, now, though. Knight kicked off the side of the building, vaulting from handhold to handhold to ascend to the rooftop.

They might have set a watch at the window. It was always best not to reuse the same routes. Always be where no one expected it.

Rachel wanted the damn notes, she’d get them. She’d get the notes, and they’d leave this planet. And then maybe… No! He’d made that mistake with Shirin. He’d let his guard down and she was dead. He would not allow himself to repeat the weakness. He would not let Rachel meet the same fate because he… Knight shook his head and grit his teeth.

From the rooftop he spotted the exhaust shaft. It would lead down into the air filtration system. He crouched by the shaft and pulled his mono sword. Get in and get out, two minutes, tops. He hefted the blade with both hands and chopped through the lock on the maintenance hatch.

He flung open the door and jumped into the shaft, slowing his descent with hands on either wall. The shaft reached down three stories; he stopped himself after two. A rotating fan pushed the exhaust upward. Knight focused, allowing the world to slip into slow motion. In his mind’s eye, the already slow-moving fan stilled to a crawl. Watch the blades. Timing is everything.

He focused on a single blade, waiting until it came around. Then he dropped. Knight folded his arms at his side and shot downward. The fan blades slashed through the tips of his hair as he fell and landed in crouch at the base of the system.

Knight grimaced, pinching a strand of his severed locks between his fingers to inspect it. Damn it. His hair, and worse, his DNA. For a moment, he considered trying to round it all up, but it would take forever and he’d probably never find every last strand.

He blew out a breath, then took in the whirring machinery down here. The air was thick and his mind began to swim. Too much carbon dioxide inside this thing. A door led to the main building.

No time to catch his breath. No time to wait.

It wasn’t locked—the builders wouldn’t want someone to get trapped in here. Knight edged open the door and peered into the hall. No one up here. He slipped outside, shutting the door behind him, then breathed deeply. The injections they’d given him may have let him breathe the local atmosphere, but they must not have been designed for the inside of filtration systems. Or maybe a normal person would have passed out in there.

Time was short. He’d already spent almost a minute in here. No shadows to hide in. The direct approach would have to do. His adrenaline shot up and he ran, leaping over the side of the landing rail at the top of the stairs.

“No way am I going in there to bother him,” someone said from the lower floor.

Knight caught himself on the rail of the lower level, pushed off from it, then dropped down on the speaker, slamming the soldier to the ground. His comrade tried to shout, tried to attack. Knight reacted faster, catching the man’s arm and driving a fist into his gut. He spun the soldier around and smashed his head into the stair rail.

Time was ticking.

He dashed for the lab.

A soldier was there, standing guard, when Knight came around the corner. “Holy—” the man shouted, raising his lancerod.

Knight jumped to the wall, running two steps along it to dodge the projectile. It impacted where he had stood. Knight kicked off the wall and crashed into the soldier, driving him into the lab’s airlock. He pressed a forearm into the staggered man’s throat, then slipped a knife between his ribs. The soldier sunk to the floor, leaving a streak of blood on the airlock.

After pushing the body aside, Knight buzzed the door. Beyond, through the glass, stood the Gibborim. He turned to face Knight, his eyes concealed by his visor, but a slight grin edged the corners of his mouth. He drew and expanded a mono katana. He was in full armor, his chest piece adorned with the Lambada sign.

Knight stepped into the room, brandishing his own katana. He pressed the button on the hilt and it uncompressed with a slight click, expanding to its full length.

“It is you, isn’t it, Lambada?” the Gibborim said.

“So you’re my replacement.”

“God, you were a legend, you know that?” Lambada shook his head, chuckling. “Sarah’s going to love it when I bring her your head.” Lambada circled him, and Knight followed suit, finding his footing in the lab. “She thought you might come back here. I didn’t think you’d be so stupid. We’re going to get that book, Knight.”

So it wasn’t just Rachel they wanted. He should have seen that. Why would they care about some offworlder? “You talk too much.”

Lambada jerked into sudden motion, flinging a pair of throwing knives from his left hand. Knight’s adrenaline kicked in and the knives slowed. A simple twist carried him between the two projectiles, and he hurled himself toward Lambada, swinging low.

Lambada jumped on a table, dodging the attack, then kicked at Knight’s head. Knight twisted again. With a flip, Lambada landed on the other side of the table, then chopped it in half with his mono sword.

Knight attacked, his blade flashing. Lambada was fast, very fast. He parried a dozen strikes before Knight’s sword caught his helmet. It slashed open the visor. Lambada stumbled back and ripped off his helmet.

Knight circled him. “If legends were easy to kill, they wouldn’t be legends, bitch.”

Lambada roared at him and charged. Knight bent over backwards to avoid a vicious swing at his neck, then twisted and rolled on the floor. Lambada jumped over his low riposte and kicked him in the face.

The impact staggered him, sending him sprawling to the ground. Pain shot through him, and he cut it off almost as fast. He landed in a roll, coming up in a two-handed parry to stop Lambada’s overhand chop. Knight was on one knee. Precarious. He parried two, three blows, unable to get the upper hand from this position.

He threw himself forward, diving under a table. Lambada rushed forward, sword high. Knight kicked off the floor, pushing himself to the wall, then sprung to his feet. He leapt to the wall behind himself, kicked off it, and flipped over the charging Gibborim.

As he landed, his slash tore open the man’s back, and Lambada collided with the wall, his sword skittering from his grasp. Knight’s replacement turned, slowly, and slumped against the wall. Blood trickled from his mouth. It seemed like he wanted to speak again, but it only came out as a gurgle.

Just as well. Knight didn’t want to hear it. He slashed again, ending the poor bastard.

A flick of his wrist flung the blood from his blade.

So Sarah knew he was involved. He growled through his teeth, then took in the lab. Damn Rachel for this. If Sarah had any doubt he was involved before, she wouldn’t now.

He snatched every data tablet he could find. Maybe the government was still using this lab for research, maybe they weren’t. Either way, he couldn’t afford to be here.

Whatever brief respite he may have enjoyed from Sarah’s attentions, that was ended now, he had no doubt. Before, maybe she was content to leave him be, considering him more trouble to terminate than he was worth. Until he had to go and fuck with her plans, whatever she was doing.

If Sarah was after the Sefer Raziel, she’d probably be the one to wind up with it. She wasn’t the kind to give up. Sarah would hunt them, track them, and sooner or later, she’d find them. Unless he could get Rachel off this planet damn quickly. And Rachel would wind up just like Shirin.

This was why he couldn’t let himself get too close.

The tablets stowed in his coat, Knight ran from the lab and out into the bunker. He dashed up the stairs, taking down three more government soldiers on his way. His former employer was not going to be happy. She’d send more than one of his brethren next time, and even Knight could only face so many Gibborim at once.

He charged out of the bunker and into the street, not bothering to hide. Instead, he made a mad dash for his hoverbike. He had to get back to Rachel.

God, if they were waiting for him here, they could be after her. There was no time.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

October 4th, 3096 EY

My father became a Redeemer after the Balthazar Incident. People blamed the Asherans for the loss of the Sentinel ship and crew. They claimed cyborgs had violated the Commandments, had turned their backs on God. And Father decided all such khapiru must be punished. My brother followed in his footsteps when I was fifteen. Sometimes, I think that’s when I truly lost him. And sometimes, I know I lost him the day Father joined the Redeemers.

Sad to think he saw Beeroth as home, but he’d had nothing else since he left the Gibborim. Hopefully not for much longer, though. Knight stowed the hoverbike, then ran for his apartment. Just get Rachel, and get off this planet. No more waiting, no more excuses.

Inside the building, he slowed his steps. Running attracted too much attention. He swiped his key card and stepped inside. Even a quick glance told him the place was empty.

Knight stepped back against the inside wall, scanning the room. The washroom door was open, so she wasn’t there. No one was. Had they already come for her? No sign of struggle. It meant she had to be safe. She had to.

The idiot girl had probably disobeyed and gone out. For God’s sake, if she was indulging her need to sample restaurants he’d feed her to the void.

He might be the only chance she had. So why the void couldn’t she just do as she was told?

There might be no coming back here. He hurried to the couch, shoved it aside, and pulled up the loose floor panel. He grabbed the bag of kesitahs. He’d imprinted several chips with all the money he’d earned as a mercenary. Still not enough to get him far, not without the rest of that money from Rachel. It was just the money. That’s all he needed. Damn her! Why did she have to put him in this position? Truth was, he couldn’t leave her to the Gibborim.

And there was nothing left in the place. Nothing to call his own. Once, he’d had everything he could have asked for, anything money could buy and then some. Hollow. It had been stripped away in an instant—his accounts frozen, all he had, taken. And none of it mattered. His time in Beeroth was just that—time spent toward an end. An escape from the chains of purgatory.

This place was a shell, as empty as he was. Except for… He brushed the dust away from the same hole he’d buried the money in. Underneath it all rested a pair of holo glasses, now cracked. Once, Shirin had used the model for portable Mazzaroth access. It had given her full holographic displays of any point she wanted to enter. Of course, it had done more than that. He gently probed the data rod. It had plugged into a cybernetic port in her temple.

Once, he’d allowed himself to get past the violation of the First Commandment. Once, he’d taken an Asheran cyborg into his heart. And now this was all that remained.

After tucking the glasses into his coat, he left the apartment, he hoped for the last time. He had to find the girl. He raced down to the Babel Bazaar. She liked that place. He stowed the bike, then hurried through the airlock.

He checked every restaurant in the bazaar, but no one had seen the girl.

Rage simmered beneath the surface, but Knight tried to keep his face a mask. She wasn’t here. God, if she was already caught… or she’d run off… He couldn’t let himself go there. She was his ticket out of this galaxy. That was all. To even dream of anything more, to allow himself to make the same mistake all over again—no!

But he had to find her.

He stopped in a weapon shop, briefly glancing at an assortment of knives. They knew him here. Not by name, of course, but the owner nodded at him. Knight pressed a kesitah chip into the man’s hand. “I need to use the Mazzaroth.”

The man checked the value, then nodded, indicating his office with a jerk of his head. Knight stepped into the back room and shut the door.

“Mazzaroth personal access, Ezekiel Knight, code Shinobi 1275-L.” The screen flickered on. “Contact Rachel Jordan.” Maybe, just maybe she was back in a hotel somewhere. He had to try. He placed his hands flat on the desk, trying not to fidget while the line buzzed. She wasn’t answering. Of course, she probably had no line. Maybe the Gibborim already had her.

A headache built in his temples. His mouth was dry. Damn that girl. He never should have taken this job, should have backed out the moment the government got involved. But Rachel was offering so much money. That was all. It was a chance to escape. That was the only reason he was still with her. The only reason.

“Connection failed.”

Knight slammed his palm on the table. “Holy universe, Rachel!” He was rapidly running out of options. If the Gibborim already had her, there was one person who could tell him. But no way in the void he could open that door. Once he opened it, there was no shutting it. And yet, he had no choice. He had to know if they had her.

“Contact Hadrian Graves.” His voice sounded dry. A call he’d never thought to make.

For a time, the line buzzed, and Knight thought maybe Hadrian wouldn’t take his call either. Then the man’s face lined the screen. His head was shaved, though thick stubble covered his face. He didn’t wear his helmet, but he had the uniform on, the Omega sign clear on his chest.

“Zeke.” Hadrian’s voice was low, raspy as ever. “You shouldn’t have called.”

“I need your help, Hadrian.”

His friend shook his head, turned his eyes down. “No one can help you now, Zeke. You should have stayed low. They weren’t even looking for you. Sarah knew you were alive, but she figured you were too much trouble. Now…”

Pretty much what he’d figured. “You could still come with me.”

“I can’t. You got out. You should have stayed out.”

Yes, he damn well should have. And now he had one option left. “I need to know if you have Rachel.”

Hadrian blew a long breath, looking down. “Zeke…”

“Please, Hadrian. If everything we’ve been through means something, just tell me.”

His friend looked up then, holding his gaze. “We don’t have her. Not yet. But you know we will.”

Knight couldn’t swallow. He knew only too well. There was so little time. “You should have come with me.”

“It’s too late.”

Knight shut his eyes. Maybe it had always been too late for Hadrian. “Mazzaroth off.”

He had to get off this planet. They’d be after him in hours at best. And before he could go anywhere, he had to find Rachel.

He slipped back into the main room of the weapon shop. “I need to find someone,” he told the owner. “Rachel Jordan. Pretty girl, average height, long brown hair. Offworlder.” He slid another kesitah chip over the counter. “Spread the word. I’ll pay big for it.”

The man shrugged. “A picture would help.”

“I don’t have one. But she likes visiting restaurants. Warm brown eyes, too. Just spread the word.”

He left and offered the same bribe to every restaurant in the Bazaar, then moved on to every other food court he could find. It didn’t matter how many bribes he had to lay. He was going to find that girl, and he prayed he’d find her before Sarah.

Because Gehenna had somehow managed to become even more inhospitable to both of them. And it was up to Rachel to get them off this planet and into Mizraim space.

Of course, if the Gibborim didn’t have her, it meant she’d run off on her own, for God only knew what inane reason. The girl was off rotation, but she didn’t deserve what Sarah would do to her. No one did.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

When I left the university, shamed and on the verge of destitution, I still could have found work as a pilot. I could have gone beyond the bounds of the Empire to lecture. Or I could have joined almost any corp. My educational background and special knowledge of Angel history and technology would have made me an asset to any megacorp in the Conglomerate. In truth, I was considering an offer from Jericho when Galizur found me, and made me a sweeter deal. It wasn’t just that it was more money, it was that he spoke of the betterment of mankind. And perhaps I was naïve to think him true to his word. But then, from all I’d read of Jericho, they would have been worse.

Caleb Gavet’s office on Sepharvaim had a view of the cerulean forest that covered much of the planet’s southern hemisphere. Laban Worlds had terraformed the planet to Jericho’s specifications, creating a world ideal for the development and testing of new pharmaceuticals. Widely varying rainforest covered so much of the planet that it teemed with indigenous flora, despite very little fauna. Other than monkeys for testing, Jericho hadn’t seen the need to populate the planet with animals.

In the morning, when the wind blew, the blue-tinged leaves swayed in the breeze, and it almost looked like waves in the ocean. Caleb liked the ocean, but the corporate office didn’t offer a view of that.

Caleb chewed his thumb, watching the flow of the forest from a hundred and fifty floors up. Some of those trees were a hundred meters tall, but from up here, they looked miniature.

“Mr. Gavet?” Rebekah said. “There’s news.”

Caleb turned to look her up and down. His nineteen-year-old assistant had hair dyed flame orange and yellow eyes that sparkled. She wore a small ring in one nostril that he had an almost irresistible urge to nibble on. “I’ve told you, you can call me Caleb, Rebekah.”

“Yeah, I…” Her eyes darted to the door like someone could hurt them here. “Caleb. There are reports of a Sentinel ship headed for Gehenna.”

Caleb pictured her nipples under that tight top. He watched her figure, thinking of stilling her nervousness by rubbing her shoulders. Then her words sunk in, shattering the image. “Mizraim. You’d better go. And get me Apollo on the line.”

“I, uh… You’re sure?” She gnawed her lip in a way that made him want to bend her over his desk.

“Yes, Rebekah. Please do it now.” He shook his head, glancing down at the picture of his wife and children. They were waiting for him in his estate outside the city. What would his wife think if she knew the horrid things that went through his mind? Rebekah wasn’t even the first, not by a long shot. He just couldn’t stop himself.

He collapsed into his chair the moment Rebekah left, watching the screen on the wall. He straightened his suit, but left his shirt half unbuttoned. He believed in a casual work environment, and he led by example. Of course, for ApolloCaleb buttoned his shirt.

His screen flickered to life. Apollo’s quarters were dark as always, and all Caleb could see was a hint of his face. His eyes, a short beard. Caleb liked to think he was good at manipulating people’s expectations. Apollo was a master. He never showed himself all the way, so everyone was left to wonder what he was hiding. Caleb had to remind himself he was just being played. The man thought to add mystery to his air? Well, Caleb spent his days so deep in political intrigue he could swim through it. Let the eccentric scientist keep his front.

“You called.” Apollo’s voice was dry, emotionless as always.

“Things are progressing, but there’s been a complication. We may want to discontinue experiments on Gehenna until it’s been cleared up.”

“What complication?”

Caleb started to chew his thumb, then dropped it. In front of Apollo, it always seemed like a sign of weakness. He shouldn’t care, the man wasn’t even officially on the Jericho payroll. But the scientific advances he’d made… “Mizraim has sent Sentinels to Gehenna.”

“That’s of no consequence. Kill them if they get in the way.”

Caleb snorted. “Kill them? Sentinels? These aren’t Shiza security personnel we’re talking about. And besides, I don’t want to draw attention. I’ve no desire to become the next Keese. Look, we’ve gotten some good data. Maybe this should all be scrapped.”

“You want to wash away all the work we’ve done? This is not a setback, it’s an opportunity. Test it in the field. Let’s see what they can do.” That dry, almost monotone voice could really grate on him. Probably yet another affectation designed to do just that. Catch someone off guard, and you could control them.

“If someone finds out what we’ve been doing…”

“Then kill them. Problem solved.”

Caleb sighed. Whatever Apollo thought, Sentinels were not a good sign. But the man was right, they had worked too hard to give it all up.

“And the Sefer?” Apollo asked.

That. “We’re still searching. The Lazarus Group may have had it earlier. Now we think a rogue agent stole it from them. We’ve got people hunting her down. She’ll never make it off world. We’re watching both spaceports.”

“I want that Sefer. Find it, no matter the cost. And kill any Lazarus agents that get in the way.”

Yeah. Everybody wanted the Sefer. Including Caleb. It would lead him to the Ark. And with that, the entire board would be at his mercy. He’d be the chairman without question. More importantly, Jericho would finally surpass QI. “About that—”

“Get the Sefer, and we will unlock all the technological secrets your heart desires. Haven’t my discoveries already made you rich? They will pale in comparison.”

Oh, Apollo’s work had certainly been profitable. But Caleb still didn’t exactly trust the man. Of course, he knew better than to really trust anyone.

Apollo cut the line.

Caleb drummed his fingers on the desk. “Bring up all details on Rachel Jordan,” he said to the Mazzaroth. It provided a brief rundown on his screen. A former lecturer on New Rome, an Angelologist, who now seemed to travel quite a bit. Jericho’s records indicated she was probably on the Quasar Industries payroll. And the last thing Jericho wanted was another corp getting that Sefer. Especially QI. If they got it first, Jericho would likely be the one driven out of business, or even subsumed into QI. They’d already made strides in that direction, trying to develop nanobot construction techniques that damn near violated Jericho domain.

If it wasn’t for Apollo’s biomesh armor product line, some of the board would probably already be under the gun. But when he got the Ark, QI would see how it felt. Once the other tech megacorp had fallen, the rest of the Conglomerate would have to get in line. QI had exclusive contracts with the Sentinels, too. Once the Sentinels lost those contracts, they’d be in a much weaker position. Which meant the Mizraim Empire itself could fall under this thumb.

But only if he played this just right.

“Contact Sarah Radison.”

Sarah was an attractive woman, but even Caleb didn’t find himself inclined to fantasize about her. Her eyes were hard, and she almost never smiled. Her dark brown hair framing her face almost, but not quite, softened it. “What is it?” she asked.

“I want you to send the Gibborim after Ms. Jordan.”

She frowned, though it was only a slight change in her expression. “I sent one. He turned up dead a little while ago. We believe a former asset is assisting her, a traitor that we’ll need to deal with.”

Now Caleb frowned. Gibborim had traitors? “Aren’t these people supposed to be your elite enforcers, Sarah? I’ve trusted you to take care of things on Gehenna. If you can’t even keep a hold on your own people…”

“I’ve got a handle on it!” she snapped, her jaw almost trembling. “Now that we’re aware of the situation, I’m sending my best agent to rectify it.”

Caleb shook his head. “No, Sarah. You’re sending every available agent to get me Ms. Jordan and whatever data she may have acquired. If you get the chance to kill this traitor, fine. But the priority is Jordan.”

“As you wish.” Sarah ground her teeth. She might not like him giving orders, but she’d do what he said. On Gehenna, she had near absolute power. The Gibborim answered to her. But she answered to Caleb.

And Rachel Jordan was about to have a very bad day.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Redeemers use a specialized non-lethal weapon called a stun baton. The name belies the truly despicable nature of the weapon. It functions like any other club, and Redeemers receive elite combat training in its use. But beyond that, it delivers an electrical charge specially designed to fry your nerves and induce the maximum amount of pain possible without actually rendering you unconscious. They want their victims aware enough to answer questions and respond to torture, but in too much pain to fight back.

Just keep running! Rachel’s heart felt like it would explode. The breather suffocated her. Down another alley, around another corner. She could hear the footfalls behind her. The shouts.

The Redeemers were so close she could almost feel their eyes on her. Judging her. Washing her sins. Hovers zipped by over the main street.

She was hyperventilating. It didn’t matter. When a hover passed by she threw herself into the street and made a mad dash for the other side. A horn blared and someone swerved, barely missing her.

“Stop her!” a man shouted behind her.

She dashed to the far side of the street, narrowly avoiding another hover. Jeremiah’s bastards were not taking her. She scurried around a building. There was no going inside—she’d be trapped. But she could escape on the monorail. She just had to get there.

There was no more hiding, just running as fast as she could. Her legs had turned to lead. Her lungs felt like ice and fire all at once. Her vision had started to blur. She raced down the stairs into the station, fumbling with a kesitah to slip in the slot. It fell from her fingers. She didn’t stop to get it, just pulled another.

A hand grabbed her shoulder. She jerked her elbow back into the attacker’s face. A man gurgled and fell. She glanced at him. Not a Redeemer—a civilian. She winced, but had no time. Redeemers were rushing down the staircase. They’d spotted her.

Her kesitah clicked into the slot and the gate opened. She dashed through and skidded to the edge of the track. Ahead, she could hear the train on its way. A few more seconds. Just a few.

The Redeemers had cleared the gate. A pair of them moved to either side of her, extending their stun batons. Rachel drew her MAG. “Stay back.”

They hesitated a moment, then two more Redeemers stepped around them, one clearly the lead. Tall, muscular, with spiked hair. Jeremiah.

His eyes met hers. “It doesn’t work,” he said.

The MAG fell to her side. How he knew no longer mattered. She was done.

Her brother’s eyes were cold, but she could feel the rage simmering off him. She’d really considered giving herself up to him? Vile condemnation seeped from his aura, leaving her nauseous.

“You really can’t stand to lose, can you?” she said.

“Runs in the family.”

The train screeched to a halt, and Rachel ran for it. The doors slid open. Something jabbed her side and a jolt of electricity raced through her. Her muscles convulsed and she tumbled to the ground, almost falling onto the track. Currents of pain shot through her nerves. Couldn’t think. The pain receded quickly, but even the memory of it left her gasping, wanting to weep.

Hands roughly lifted her to her knees. Someone pulled her head back to look in her brother’s eyes.

“Give it to me,” he said. “Give me the Sefer, Rachel.”

“Go to hell.”

She saw the slap coming. The jerk of his shoulder, the way he reared back. And she could do nothing to avoid it. The sharp crack echoed through the station. The hands holding her kept her from falling, but it felt like her jaw was broken. Tears welled in her eyes from the sting and the copper tang of blood filled her mouth. She’d bit her tongue.

Jeremiah tore open her vest and the tablet fell. “Finally.” He grabbed it, then looked down at her, shaking his head. “Bring her,” he said, and stepped onto the train.

Angel’s wrath, he was really going to wash her. “No!” She lunged at one of the Redeemers who held her and bit his arm.

“Bitch!” he snapped, shoving her away.

She slid on the floor, then pushed herself up. Jeremiah had the Sefer. For one second she hesitated. Now might be her only chance to get away. They had what they really wanted… and humanity would pay the price for it.

“Hurry up and bring her!” her brother said. “The train is leaving.”

One of the Redeemers joined Jeremiah on the train, while the other two moved in on her.

And then a black blur slammed into one. Knight had an arm around the man’s neck and spun, twisting his arm. He smashed the man’s head into the train.

“Knight!” Rachel shouted. “He has the—”

The train doors flashed and slid shut. Her brother threw himself against the glass door, glaring at her through it.

The last Redeemer spun to face Knight, stun baton extended. “You’re gonna pay for—”

Knight charged.

The Redeemer thrust with the baton. Knight stepped around it, caught his arm, and spun him around, jabbing the baton into the man’s own stomach. The man convulsed in Knight’s arm, but Knight didn’t release the poor bastard. For agonizing seconds the Redeemer jerked in pain Rachel knew all too well. Then Knight let him drop, and he laid spasming on the ground. Did he live? Or were those just the electric remnants stimulating his nervous system?

Knight spun on her. She tried to back away, but he was there in an instant, hands on her shoulders. “I told you to stay in the apartment! What the fuck is wrong with you? Why betray me?”

She jerked her knee up to catch him in the groin. He moved too fast, twisting his body and flinging her into the station wall. The impact knocked her breath away. Everything was blurred a moment, before she could push herself up. “You’re an assassin! You work for the Gehennan oligarchy. And you say I betrayed you?”

Knight’s face drew into a scowl that might have stopped a lesser heart. “Not. Any. More.”

Rachel rose to her feet. Trying to fight was pointless, but if she waited for the right moment maybe she could escape.

He grabbed her elbow and yanked her along behind him. “Come on.”

“Where are you taking me?”

“Home!” he snapped.

Was it possible he had told the truth? Could he have left the Gibborim? He’d fought for her, killed for her. Killed so many people. Had any of them really deserved it? Did such a man even have a soul?

And if he did, hadn’t he offered it to her? By doing what he felt he had to in order to protect her, had even given her more than she asked for? And if she continued to work with him, to use his services knowing what he was and what he’d been, she would be culpable for those actions, at least in her own conscience.

But he had protected her. If he spoke the truth and wouldn’t hand her over to the Gibborim, he was such an asset. And she’d seen the depths beneath his armor—there was real caring there, hidden under a lifetime of scars and hatred and more violence than she could conceive of.

Was it possible he’d left it all behind? All she felt now from him was anger, hurt, and defiance. But not malice, not the intent to do her harm. If he focused on her like that, intended to betray her, wouldn’t she know? Wouldn’t she feel it?

If she ran, he’d catch her, at least unless she found the perfect moment.

But if she went with him… Knight could protect her. And maybe, maybe she could save him too.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

When Knight came back for me, despite all I knew about him, my first reaction was relief. Foolish of me in the extreme, perhaps, and yet, seeing him gave me a moment’s respite. I had rejected him and run from him, and somehow he still came to my rescue.

Stupid, stupid girl. How had she even found out about his past? No, it didn’t matter. Knight glanced back at her as he pulled her along.

She tried to hide her fear, but he could see it. He’d seen it in so many eyes over the years. So many victims, some trying to put up a brave facade, some begging. Some cursing the shadows, knowing something was there, stalking them. Knowing he was there, waiting.

But Rachel was different.

Damn it!

And he couldn’t afford to have her fighting him. He needed her if either of them were going to get out of this alive.

He shook his head, and glanced back at her. “All right, listen to me. Whatever I was, whatever I grew up as, I’m not that any more. You know who I am. I’m a mercenary trying to get off this rock. And I need you to help me do that, right now, Rachel. We cannot stay here. They’re looking for us both, now.”

“Why should I believe you?” she asked, not fighting his grasp, but still not cooperating.

He couldn’t well drive the bike with her like this. “Because they’re after me, too. Because I’ve risked everything for the chance you offer, the chance to get out of this life. How do you think I came to work for them? That I chose to be Gibborim because of the near unlimited expense account?”

“So that’s what they paid you? Whatever you wanted?”

Yeah. That’s what they had paid, when he’d graduated to full Gibborim status. You could have anything you wanted. Of course, there was a price for it. Everything had its price. And he had paid down through the years. His full life, he’d paid.

“I was raised into it, all right? I never had a choice.” Along with the other young trainees, the Gibborim had been his family, his mother and father, sick as it was. His earliest memories involved training with throwing knives. He learned to read like any other little boy. Except, he also learned to kill at the same time. When he was six, they’d made him kill a fellow student in a fight to the death.

“And I might be doing it still. I don’t know. But things went bad.”

Finally, she stopped fighting and walked beside him willingly. “What things, Knight?”

He led her to the bike and started it. “Get on.”

“What things?”

There wasn’t time, he couldn’t… but he had to. Somehow, he had to tell her. “Three years ago I was sent to take down some corporate executive. There was another agent there…”

Shirin… an Asheran agent on Gehenna.

He shut his eyes. “She was…”

“She?” Rachel stood closer to him now. “God, you fell in love.”

“How the void do you know that?”

She shrugged. “I’m an empath.”

Well, that would have been nice to know a long time ago. Shit, how deeply had she probed him? Did she know he’d started to feel? No. He shut that line of thought down in a heartbeat. Instead, he glared at her, hoping she could read the irritation. “Stay out of my head and get on the damn bike.”

She did, settling on behind him. “So what happened to her?”

Knight turned on the bike and it hummed to life. He shook his head and drove off, back toward his apartment. Shirin had tried to protect him. To protect him.

A hollow pain filled his chest. He’d never talked to anyone about this, except for Hadrian. There was no way. Not now. He drove in silence until he reached the garage for his apartment complex.

“Knight?” Rachel said, her tone soft in his ear. “She was killed?”

Knight hopped off the bike. “I’m done talking about this.”

“Knight…” Rachel trotted after him. “Knight, I’m sorry.” Her hand wrapped around his forearm. He couldn’t feel her warmth through his nanomesh coat, but somehow it was still a comfort. And an odd sensation. What did she intend? She knew what he was now, so could she still think…?

Then her grip tightened. In an instant, he felt his muscles tense in response to her fear. She leaned close to his ear. “There’re people here, I can feel them. Hostile.”

Knight kept his eyes forward, kept walking. She was right. Something was wrong, and he’d let himself get so caught up in the past he hadn’t seen it. They were here. In the shadows of the garage, maybe behind one of the hovers.

His fingers wrapped around the kyoketsu’s grip. “Can you drive a hoverbike?” he asked softly.

“Yeah.”

“Then go.” He slipped the bike key card into her hand. “Run now!”

Rachel took off running as three Gibborim seemed to materialize from the shadows before the airlock.

Knight whipped the kyoketsu out, pressing the button to extend the cord. A monofilament line slid from the knife hilt, extending the reach of the knife blade several meters. The kyoketsu was the most difficult weapon Gibborim trained in. Few ever mastered it.

Knight had.

Knives flew at him. He jumped into the air, twisting and whipping the kyoketsu. The throwing knives soared past him. His own mono blade slashed down at one of the Gibborim, who had to dive for cover. He spun as he landed in a crouch, arcing the whip-knife over his head. It cleaved through a hover and drove another Gibborim back. In the same moment he flung a throwing knife from his off-hand, catching the dodging man in the mouth. Theta, it looked like.

One down.

Epsilon was charging him, mono sword ready in her hand. Knight jumped up, vaulted a hover, and ran after Rachel. She’d started the bike and was driving up the ramp. A flick of his wrist retracted the kyoketsu, and he stowed it as he ran. He just had to vault on the bike, and they’d be clear.

A glance over his shoulder told him the Gibborim was too close, she’d catch him on the ramp. And Rachel would be caught. Shit.

Knight dove into a roll, pulling throwing knives from the straps on his thighs as he turned back on Epsilon, and flinging both in a single fluid motion.

One bounced off her armor, the other off her helmet. The impact must have stunned her, at least for a moment. Knight shoulder-plowed into the woman, sending her skittering along the ground.

The other Gibborim was closing in. Gamma. Knight had known him—a little too proud, and a man like that liked to take full advantage of Gibborim perks. Gamma flung more throwing knives. Time seemed to slow, and Knight dodged each, stepping around them. And then Gamma moved faster than Knight had ever seen, flinging four more knives. Knight twisted, dodging, but one caught his cheek and carved a hot line of blood through it.

He heard the screech as Rachel rode the bike away. At least she’d make it out.

Epsilon was back up. She was closing in, sword in hand. Gamma drew a blade too, extending it.

Knight wrapped his hand back around the kyoketsu, then jerked it out, flinging it at Gamma’s neck. The other man bent backward to evade the whip-knife and slashed to counter. Knight did a butterfly kick in the air over the sword, then whipped the kyoketsu straight down.

The knife cleaved into Epsilon’s helmet and embedded into her skull. Knight jerked on the cord, pulling her body into Gamma’s way. He stepped into the man, caught his arm, and twisted, jerking Gamma’s sword out of his hand.

It clattered to the ground.

Gamma kicked him, sending Knight stumbling backward. The force of it stunned him a moment, but only a moment. The nanomesh probably took the worst of it.

A hoverbike shrieked nearby, and Gamma glanced at it. Knight used the chance to kip up to his feet and launch himself into the air. He landed with his knees on Gamma’s shoulders and twisted, flipping him around and flinging him through the air.

Rachel gunned the bike back down the ramp and slid to a stop nearby. “Are you coming?”

She’d come back for him? Why? Why would she risk herself for him? A numbness settled in his brain as he dashed for the bike and leapt on behind her.

She spun around and launched the bike up the ramp. “Are they dead?”

“Not all of them.” Not by a long shot. There would be more, very soon.

She’d come back for him. For him? After all that posturing about how he was an assassin… She was trying to protect him. Like Shirin had done. And it had cost her life.

He pointed down an alley. “Pull in there.”

“What? There’s no way out of—”

“Do it!”

The bike shrieked from her sudden turn, and he had to grip her shoulder tighter to hold on. Then it spun to a rest. He jumped off and ran to a hatch, angled up on the far wall. It would lead down into the depths.

“What—” Rachel started to say.

Knight drew his sword and cleaved through the lock, then flung open the hatch. “The Undercity. Come on.”

He jumped down the hole.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

The less said about the Undercity, the better. If anyone reading this is not yet convinced of the Shadow Council’s apathy in caring for their world, I doubt this would be the tipping point.

Knight landed in near darkness. Every ten meters, faint lights glimmered in the upper corners, or they would have if half of them hadn’t burned out.

Rachel climbed down the ladder beside him a moment later. “What is this, a sewer?”

“Sewer, maintenance tunnels, power lines, chemical plants. The Undercity is the basic infrastructure for Beeroth. There’s one for every city on Gehenna.”

He took off down the tunnel, careful of his steps, trying not to get too far ahead of Rachel. She’d be lost down here without him, and he wasn’t going to leave her to Sarah’s minions.

They could well lose the Gibborim down here. His former brethren knew of these tunnels, of course, and used them sometimes on jobs, but tracking a person down here was difficult. Which was one reason Gibborim used them as escape routes.

“Won’t they know we came down here?”

“They’ll figure it out fast, but not where we went.”

“Knight, I can barely see a thing.”

He waited for her to catch up, then grabbed her hand. She murmured something, and he realized his gloves were slick with blood. Well, no time for squeamishness. She was in a damn sewer, after all.

“Sorry about your home,” she said after a minute.

She damn well should be. But then, she’d come back for him. “Believe me now?”

“Yeah.” Her voice was dry, quiet.

“You shouldn’t have waited for me.”

She snorted. “I wasn’t going to just leave you.”

A weight built in his stomach. Why not? Why shouldn’t she have fled? “Don’t speak until we’ve gone further in,” he said.

For a while, he led her through the tunnels. They stank of chemicals, waste, rust, a combination of aromas he’d almost managed to forget. The ways were a tangled series of interlocking canals, tubes, and small lines that ran for hundreds and hundreds of kilometers. Even with a map it was easy to get lost.

But Knight remembered the way from here. At least, he thought he did. Probably a lot of the Gibborim had their own private places down here. He knew Hadrian had—he was the one who had shown Knight the idea. You never told anyone about your sanctuary. He was breaking the rule with Rachel, taking her there. He’d broken it once before, too.

God, let this time have a better ending.

For thirty minutes or more he led her through the winding ways, and at last down a hatch to a lower level. Overhead, a plant processed and purified water, running the cleaned stuff through the pipes now over their heads. He felt Rachel look up at them, but she said nothing.

From here, he had to follow the largest pipe around the bend. Beyond that, he bypassed the central bazaar, but Rachel stopped and stared down the hall at the cluster of shanties, sheets covered in broken wares, and barely edible food.

“People live down here?”

“Those who can’t find shelter in the slums above. The maintenance crews have portable air filters. The locals fitted one into the bazaar. Come on, it’s not too much further.”

He didn’t keep his sanctuary too close to the bazaar. It had to be far enough off the beaten path no one would stumble across it by mistake. Which meant passing the acid scrubbers stripping chemicals and alkaline out of the water before it reached the purifiers. The excess was shot out in compressed streams of hot acid that could melt skin, so most people steered clear. But you just had to learn the timings, and he had.

“Wait,” he said, and a shot of the steaming liquid caked the far wall. It lasted only a moment, and then they would have sixty-three seconds to cross. “Come now, quickly.”

He led her by the hand through the tube, and into a side hall beyond it. The old door ahead stuck, and he had to force it with his shoulder. Once, the room had been used to house maintenance robots and tools. The government had abandoned the storeroom a decade ago for newer facilities.

A faint light illuminated the room, now filled with a sleeping mat, a tablet with a few books on it, and a stack of canned food. “It’s not much, but we’ll be safe here. For a little while, anyway.”

Rachel sighed and sunk down on the mat. “I lost the Sefer.”

Knight shrugged. He was sick of that damned thing. He tossed the tablets he’d stolen onto the mat beside her. “Here’s the research anyway.”

The government was probably watching the spaceports now. They were good and truly screwed, unless Rachel had some brilliant plan up her sleeve.

She paged through the tablets, grunting every once in a while. Knight sunk down on the cold floor and pried open a can. Manna Products’ lowest end goods, cans of protein and vitamin meal. Crunchy, largely tasteless, and enough to sustain a person, if not satisfy. He broke off a piece and handed it to Rachel. She gnawed on it, then frowned, staring down at the bar.

“Eat it.”

He’d killed three of the Gibborim, counting Lambada. Sarah wouldn’t take any more chances. When they came at him, it would be hard and fast. For the moment, though, they’d be licking their wounds. Gibborim didn’t die too often. The new faces might be nervous, maybe just a little, at the thought of going after him. Maybe he could use that.

He leaned against the wall and shut his eyes. You had to be able to quiet your mind. Had to be able to rest when you had the chance.

“I need to get the Sefer back,” Rachel said. “We have to get it back from the Redeemers.”

Knight had almost dozed off. It had been too long since he’d slept. “It’s lost. Forget the damn thing.”

“I can decode it now, Knight. With what you brought me, I’m sure I can. And we can’t let the Redeemers leave here with it. Don’t you understand what that would mean?”

He didn’t know, or care. He opened his eyes and looked straight into hers. They were sparkling brown, almost yellow. “Don’t you think our situation is fucked up enough as it is? No, of course not. You want to go looking for more trouble. I won’t take that risk, and neither should you. The only thing you should be focusing on is getting us off this planet without either of us dying.”

She scrambled over to him. “Knight, listen. The Sefer Raziel holds the secrets the Angel meant for mankind to unlock, including the way to the Ark.”

No, no, no. This could not continue. She was going to die—they were both going to die unless she gave this up. Knight shut his eyes, not wanting to have to look at her imploring face. “Means nothing to me.” He forced the words out through gritted teeth, but she paid no heed. Probably sensed the lie. Damned empath!

“The Ark was the Angels’ central computer, Knight, the repository of all their knowledge. Maybe of all the knowledge in the universe. The truth about God Himself, some people say. If we had it…”

“We’d be the target of every power-mad little shit in the universe.”

She pushed on his shoulders, forcing him to open his eyes. Her touch had been warm even through his coat. Or maybe he’d imagined it. “Listen, Knight. This is the future of humanity we’re talking about. If the Redeemers find it, people will never even know. If Jericho gets it, they’d exploit it.”

Knight held her wrists, suddenly sickened by the blood covering his gloves. He yanked them off, then pushed Rachel back again, leaning in close. “And you think your friend at Quasar Industries won’t?”

She leaned away, and brushed her hair from her face. “Fine. Pretend you don’t even care about your race. But I know better. I know who you are.”

How? A few hours ago she thought he was a murdering psycho working for the government. How could she know him? It was not his problem. People had to look out for themselves. That was all. “Rachel…”

He couldn’t stop himself. He grabbed the back of her head and pulled her close, then kissed her. Her lips were salty with sweat and none of it mattered.

At last she pushed him away and shook her head. “Knight, please. Not right now.”

“We could… The Third Commandment,” he said. “You know I have good genes. We’d have strong children.”

“Not like this. I’m sorry.”

“Are you one of those people who thinks you have to be married to have kids?” Really? He’d heard some offworlders claimed that, though Angels had never cared.

Rachel shook her head, her fists clenching like she struggled hard against something.

“It’s that other guy? Then why even let it start with me?” He shook his head.

“I just—I don’t know, Knight.”

He jumped up and stormed out of the sanctuary. For a while, he wandered the halls, then grabbed a few supplies from the bazaar. He couldn’t well leave her alone there for long. She’d wander out and get herself lost, or worse.

“Knight,” she said the moment he returned. “I’m sorry.” She rose and walked to him. “Really. It’s just not the time.”

“Whatever.”

“Look, Galizur can get us both out of here. All I have to do is call him and say we’ve got the Sefer and the translation, and he would arrange an extraction. But we have to get the Sefer! You know QI has the resources to pull it off, even with Jericho running things.”

What? He leaned forward. “Jericho?”

Rachel watched him a moment, then coughed. “Wow, you really didn’t know. Jericho Corp is the power behind the scenes on this planet. Your boss’s boss, I guess you could say.”

Damn. Had that been what the coup was about three years ago? Had he gotten caught up in some corporate power play? None of that mattered anymore. His old life was long gone, and Rachel was his only chance at a new one.

“Your friend had better deliver, Rachel.”

She nodded.

Knight crawled over to the mat. “Get some sleep first.”

She hesitated a moment, then lay down beside him and shut her eyes. A sense of surrealism washed over him, the oddness of seeing her decide to trust him so completely. Few in his life ever had. But she wouldn’t take him. His body craved her more than he could stand, and she had to feel it. The way she stirred, the slight tension in her shoulder—she felt it.

And it was more. He wanted her to give him children. In his whole life, he’d barely ever thought about it. With Shirin, there was never time.

And there wasn’t time now. Even if he couldn’t have her, she had trusted him. Off rotation as she was, that still counted for a lot.

Maybe everything.

“Rachel,” he said after a few minutes. “You know they’ll be expecting us. The Redeemers.”

“Yeah.”

Knight watched her still form, her steady breathing, for a moment before shutting his eyes.

CHAPTER THIRTY

October 5th, 3096 EY

Knight had said Galizur had better deliver. He was right. With the government after us, we could never get off Gehenna now, not without outside help. The spaceports would be closed to us. For the first time, I guess I began to understand how Knight had felt, spending his life in the shadows. He told me he had failed to finish a job once, a hit on a corporate suit. And that someone he cared about died to protect him. From that day, he lived in hiding, knowing the moment the government discovered him his life was over.

Tracking the Redeemers hadn’t taken long. The zealots spread fear everywhere they went and didn’t have much for subtlety. It didn’t surprise Knight to learn they’d checked into the Sheik. These people preached righteousness, but clearly they were used to the comforts of Mizraim. Out here on the edges of civilization, beyond the grasp of the great empires, people learned to manage with less.

It made them stronger.

“My source says they’ve rented the entire seventy-fifth floor,” Rachel said.

Knight nodded, crouched in the alley behind the hotel. He’d been up there once on a mission. The seventy-fifth floor of the Sheik was a giant suite with a central lobby featuring a hot tub, bar, and massive vid screen. Definitely a perk of wealth. And sloppy. They’d be relaxed. He’d slip in there and kill them all before they knew he was among them.

“All right. I want you to wait in the alley. I’ll go in, get the Sefer, and be back in a bit.”

She shook her head. “No, I’m coming—”

“No you’re not. You’d slow me down. I’m better, faster, alone.”

Rachel’s breath fogged her breather. She wasn’t happy, but she’d deal. “Look, just don’t kill anyone.”

Why the void not? Knight had to turn and look at her face. Shit, she was serious.

“I’ll try. Now stay here.”

He slipped from the alley into the shadow of the hotel itself, and from there strode to the airlock. He hit the buzzer and it whooshed open. Clear. He entered, hit the buzzer again and waited for the airlock to open into the lobby.

A man at the front desk nodded at him when he entered. “How can I help you, sir?”

“I need—”

A grenade rolled from around the corner. Knight dove to the side. It ruptured, spewing electrical discharge around the lobby. The edge of it caught his leg and sent him stumbling to the floor. Energy coursed through him, his leg convulsing, refusing to obey.

He had to get control.

Pain was in the mind.

His body was his own. Pain was in the mind.

Knight stilled his leg. Men were rushing him. Redeemers, five of them. He pushed off the ground with one hand, flipping in the air and coming down on top of one Redeemer. The impact slammed the man into the floor.

Another kicked him in the face. He stumbled backward, stunned. A man rushed him. Knight evaded the stun baton and slammed his hand into the man’s sternum, probably cracking it. The Redeemer fell with a sharp cry.

Jolts of electric pain shot through his leg as a stun baton cracked him there. He rolled with it, trying to get away. A man swung at him with another baton. Knight caught the man’s forearm on his arm, blocking several more blows from two more attackers.

He tried to go for his sword and another baton jabbed his shoulder. The electric discharge sent him sprawling, skittering over the smooth floor.

The airlock whooshed open as Knight tried to climb to his feet again. A sharp electric pain jabbed him in the shoulder and drove him to his knees.

“Knight!” Rachel’s voice. He couldn’t look up at her. He fell to his hands.

His muscles wouldn’t obey. Convulsions wracked him and it took all his training to keep from falling over. Pain was in the mind. In the mind. In the mind. In the mind.

“I knew you’d never give it up, Rachel,” the lead Redeemer said. “And we could hardly let a man who had killed so many of our brothers walk away from it.”

“Let him go!”

Knight looked up enough to see one of the Redeemers was holding her, pinning her arms to her sides. She struggled, to no avail, in his arms.

Rachel.

Knight tried to rise, but the pain took his breath away.

But pain was in the mind.

The Redeemer leader spat. “Filthy khapiru, the both of you. You’ll be washed and purified. Maybe one day this wretch will even be useful to us. With proper retraining.”

Brainwashing? Knight chuckled, his breath still coming in gasps. They could do no worse to him than Gehenna had already done.

The Redeemer turned back to him. “Glutton for punishment? You want some more?”

Pain was in the mind. Rachel needed him.

Knight glared up at him, growling through teeth clenched against the pain. “I want it all!”

The nearest Redeemer jabbed at him again. Knight was faster. He snapped his palm into the man’s elbow and the baton clattered from his hand. Knight threw himself onto it, coming up with it in hand.

The Redeemers rushed him.

Knight stepped behind the closest one, swept his legs, caught his arm and flipped him upside down, yanking his arm out of socket. He kicked another in the chest. The third swung the baton. Knight parried. Two of them were swinging at him now.

Rachel was free. Screaming. She tackled one Redeemer.

His adrenaline soared. Time slowed. No pain. No fear. No thought.

He twisted his head a centimeter to dodge a jab, caught a man in the stomach with his elbow, reversed to jab another in the face with a baton. There was only instinct, only reaction.

Two were down, all were wounded. They coordinated their attack. But they were too slow. Knight shoved one into another and cracked the third Redeemer’s skull with his baton.

Rachel smashed one’s head on the floor.

Only the leader remained. He swung. Knight ducked, pounding his fist into the man’s stomach. He spun, catching him across the face with the baton. The Redeemer’s weapon clattered away, and he toppled.

Knight rammed the baton into the man’s shoulder, and he convulsed.

“Knight!” Rachel screamed. “Knight, stop!”

No. It was time to end this.

“Knight, he’s my brother! Please!”

At that he let the contact break and the Redeemer slumped to the ground, his convulsing arms unable to support his weight. Knight looked at Rachel, hard. A tremble ran through the girl. Her brother? Her own brother sent these men after her?

Knight kicked the man in the face, knocking him over. Knight leaned down beside him. “Praise God and your sister for your worthless life,” he said softly. “And pray you never come before me again.”

He flung the baton away, then searched the barely conscious man. The tablet was in his jacket.

Knight rose and his own legs gave out. The adrenaline must have started to wear off. He landed on his knees, another painful impact.

Rachel pulled him up. “Thank you…”

He shook his head, then thought better of it. God, his temples throbbed. A sudden urge to go kick her brother again welled up, but she was already dragging him away to the airlock.

“You’re a good guy,” she said, hitting the buzzer. “Sometimes.”

No. He wasn’t. He was a killer. He had done what he had to in order to survive. That was all. All he’d ever done.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

October 7th, 3096 EY

In my entire life, I’ve never seen anyone get up that quickly after being struck with a stun baton. Knight claimed it was mere mind over matter, the ability to recognize the mind controlled the body. Maybe that was Gibborim training. But then, I’d heard some of the greatest Psychs in the universe talk like that, saying the technique came from Angels themselves.

The Gehenna system orbited a red dwarf. David didn’t much like such stars—their dying light felt ominous, like a warning before the strike of an inescapable predator. From the moment the Logos exited the Gate into the system, red light suffused the bridge.

It took only a few minutes to reach the planet Gehenna. Waller stood beside David’s chair, eyes on the screen. David couldn’t feel anything coming off him, but he knew it was there. The anticipation, the need for validation. The captain thought the Sefer Raziel would ensure the eternal dominance of the Empire. Maybe it would. Mizraim was the legitimate heir of the Angels, and the only real defense against Asherah. The Ark falling to Jericho would be a disaster. And yet, to come here, to risk Rachel’s life…

All too soon, David pulled the Logos into orbit around the planet. He’d seen images of it before, but seeing it on the screen in person—the red, gaseous, bloated thing was all the more unsettling.

“McGregor. Take a shuttle and go get me that Sefer.”

“Sir.” David set the ship into autopilot to maintain orbit, then stood. “Lieutenant Dana.”

Phoebe rose from the weapons console and fell into step beside him. The bridge door slid open and they strode down the hall.

“Guess you don’t need a breather,” she said when the doors slid shut behind them.

He shook his head. Being a Smogger had advantages.

“I must say, I am deeply honored to have been chosen for such a prestigious and enlightening mission,” she said.

“Sarcasm noted.”

Phoebe grinned, revealing too-white teeth. She was young for a weapons officer, only twenty-eight.

“Oh no, sir,” she said, eyes sparkling. “I would never dare sarcasm. I’m positively overwhelmed by the chance to have my skin boiled by toxic gasses.”

David smirked. The atmosphere wasn’t nearly that bad, and even if it were, her suit would protect her. “That mouth of yours must get you in a lot of trouble, lass.”

“Yes, sir.” She pushed a button to call a lift. “I get into all kinds of trouble with my mouth. One time I—”

The lift whooshed open. “Might want to keep it to yourself, Lieutenant.”

“Yes sir, I do have trouble keeping my mouth to myself.”

David snickered and stepped into the lift. It carried them down to the hangar, where he selected a shuttle. Phoebe strapped herself into the co-pilot’s seat while he did a quick preflight check.

He caught a glimpse of a breather in her hand. She must have pulled it from the storage locker in the back of the shuttle.

“You won’t need that until we get there.”

“Better to have it early than late,” she said.

Indeed.

“Cleared for launch,” the computer voice told him.

David eased the throttle, and the shuttle accelerated down the launch tube, a series of airlock doors opening and closing as they passed. The shuttle shot forward into space above the planet. If the thing had looked sick from the bridge of the Logos, from a shuttle it seemed positively putrid.

“Why would anyone want to live on that?” Phoebe asked.

“I doubt they do. Of course, some people probably ask the same thing about your world. Ekron, right?”

“Yup, yup. My own little shiny ball of ice.”

He smiled a bit. He’d spent a bit of time with Phoebe since coming on board, but maybe not as much as he should have. She was a senior officer, and a talented one. She was four years his junior, so they’d been at the Sentinel Academy together, but not for long, and he didn’t remember seeing her.

When he’d introduced himself on the Logos, though, she said she knew who he was. “Big shot senior and all,” she’d said.

“The captain sure seems eager to get whatever we’re here for,” she said. “Not that I need to know. I mean, clearly there would be no benefit to telling your partner the aim of the mission. Don’t worry, I’ve got a pulse pistol, an electrolaser, and eyes to die for. I’m prepared for a fight, a dance, or any combination thereof.”

Aye, she was right. “The Sefer Raziel. The captain thinks it’s on this planet, and that it will give the Empire the edge it needs against Asherah.”

Phoebe pursed her lips together. “Oooo. So is it?”

“Aye, maybe.” He piloted the shuttle into the atmosphere, the thick fumes making it almost impossible to get a visual. He could fly by instruments with the best of them, but he hated doing it.

“And here I thought you were just looking for a chance to ask me to dance.” She had this odd habit of staring right into your eyes when she talked. “Oh well. Captain has always had some serious rage leveled at Asherah.”

“Aye. He’s not the only one.”

“So your mother was captain of the Balthazar.”

Subtle. “Aye, lass.”

“Care to share your version? I was pretty young. Not that I ever played with dolls or anything. Icicles maybe, to stab my brothers. But not dolls.”

David had been young, too. Eleven. “The details are still classified. But I can say the Balthazar was the first ship to encounter a Leviathan. Asherah had just started pushing at its borders, and no one saw it coming after so long a period of isolation. Mum must have tried to communicate with them, but something went wrong. The Leviathan tore the Balthazar to pieces. Mum tried to escape and was driven into a black hole. Lost the whole ship, whole crew.”

“People blamed her.”

Aye. People always blamed her for the way things started back then. The tension, the shame. She should have fought harder, done more. That’s what Sentinel gossip said.

“Must have been tough, being a Sentinel with that hanging over you, huh?”

David scratched his head. “We all have our demons, lass.”

“Yup.”

He landed on the edge of the planet’s largest city. They didn’t really have any intel on where Rachel had gone. “This is going to take some digging.”

Phoebe pressed on her breather and hefted her pulse pistol. “I brought my shovel.”

David rose and opened the shuttle door.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

October 8th, 3096 EY

The Lazarus Group had some uncanny insight into Angel symbology. Even as an Angelologist, their research leaves me in awe. It is only a matter of time. I can almost taste the wonders of creation unfolding before me.

Rachel matched another of the symbols to the Lazarus Group’s notes. If this represented a galaxy, then… She cross-referenced her new findings.

“Knight…” Was it possible? Could this really be?

“Hmm.”

“I think I have it…” If that was really meant to be Gehenna… Rachel felt lightheaded, as if the Undercity spun around her. “I think I know where the Angels hid the Ark.”

“Swell.” He stood and stretched. “Can we call your QI friend and get the void out of here now?”

Swell? Angels above! This was the biggest discovery in the history of… ever. And all he had to say was swell? “Do you understand what this means, Knight?”

“It means you and I can finally get off this rock.”

True. There would be time for celebration later. “Yeah. We have to get to the moon. We need to get somewhere with Mazzaroth access and then—” Something was wrong. A jumble of emotions assaulted her. Hostility, roiling waves of it. So many minds, all bent on harm. A throbbing built behind her eyes. “Knight, they’re coming.”

“Shit.” He pulled his sword from his coat. “You remember the way back to the bazaar?”

She nodded. Probably. They’d gone there once to grab some food.

“Then go. I’ll be right behind you.”

Knight dashed through the doorway and was gone into the shadows. And then a shout rang through the tunnels, echoing.

Rachel ran. The floor was slick, the tunnels dark, but her eyes had adjusted days before. Gunfire rang down the hall. The muzzle flash of a MAG rifle illuminated a pair of soldiers across the way and the wall behind her exploded in a shower of rock and metal as slugs tore the tunnel to pieces.

She was screaming, she realized, as she threw herself onto the ground.

The other soldier tried to fire and his MAG exploded. The detonation nearly blinded her, and flung both soldiers into the mass of sewage. Angels above. Knight refused to use a MAG with good reason, it seemed.

Slick grime covered her palms as she pushed herself up. A mad scramble for the acid scrubbers. Beyond those the bazaar would offer some shelter.

A Gibborim stood in front of her, advancing with sword drawn. Rachel skittered to a stop a meter in front of the acid scrubber jet. Her throat was dry. She raised her trembling hands over her head in surrender.

The Sefer. These Gibborim worked for Jericho. She could not allow them to get the book. No matter what. If Jericho got the Ark, it could bring the Mizraim Empire to its knees.

The man in black advanced, eyes grim and—Rachel swore—glimmering in the darkness. “Hands behind your back.”

She did as she was told, turning around and stepping away from him.

Her mind tingled with his steady approach. Anger. Rage seeped off him like wisps of steam.

She had no choice. She had to get the Sefer off this planet. Everything depended on it.

The acid scrubber fired. The impact sent the man flying across the way. A heartrending shriek escaped him for an instant, then it became a bloody gurgle.

Rachel whimpered, covering her head with her hands. “I’m sorry.”

As soon as the jet died, she ran on, toward the bazaar. As she reached it her feet slipped out from under her. More soldiers filled the room, and one turned a MAG rifle on the crowd. He opened fire, a stream of magnetic slugs ripped people, shanties, and the tunnel itself to shreds.

Rachel landed hard on her back, her leg twisted up under her. With a groan, she turned, trying to head back into the tunnel. These people were being slaughtered, but she couldn’t do anything for them. Behind her, down the tunnel, a Gibborim woman stood in the darkness, mono sword in hand, Iota insignia.

No. Not now. Not after everything. She had it. She had it!

And then Knight appeared behind Iota. He fell to his knees and skidded on the ground. His sword cut right through her waist. A geyser of blood exploded from the sickening wound and Iota’s torso toppled away from her legs.

Bile scorched Rachel’s throat. Then she vomited.

By the time she looked up, Knight was on his feet and had disappeared behind some shanties. Next thing she knew he was flying over them, throwing knives soaring into the soldier shooting the crowd.

A knife caught the man in the neck, and he fell, spraying rounds in a wild arc.

One must have struck Knight, because he jerked in midair, spun at an unnatural angle, and landed crooked.

Rachel scrambled over to him. “Knight!” Shit, shit, shit! He couldn’t be dead. She would not lose him, not now. She’d gotten him into this mess.

He coughed, pushing himself up. “I’m okay. Nanomesh took it. Just run!” Thank God. Rachel grabbed him and yanked him to his feet.

Another Gibborim dropped from somewhere in the pipes above, this one marked with Kappa. She had a kyoketsu like Knight’s and whipped it in an arc. Knight shoved Rachel aside and bent back to dodge, whipping out his own kyoketsu.

The two engaged in an intricate dance, each barely evading the lightning-fast strikes of the other. Knight flipped through the air, butterfly kicking over her low swing, and bringing his knife down on the head of a charging soldier.

Rachel made a dash for a shanty and dove behind it. She glanced out, seeing Knight still engaged with the Gibborim. He couldn’t give her his full attention because more soldiers were pouring into the bazaar. Civilians had crowded in corners whimpering, crying.

Another Gibborim dropped down, flinging knives at Knight. He dodged each, but his opponents were nearly as fast as he was.

The soldier shooting the crowd had had a working MAG rifle. Rachel ran for the MAG and dove to the floor. She snatched the rifle and twisted around, opening fire on the soldiers filing into the bazaar.

A MAG round tore right through one soldier’s helmet. A half dozen rounds took another soldier in the chest. The Gehennan troops leapt for cover. Rachel followed suit, scurrying back behind the shanty.

It would never withstand a MAG round, but if they couldn’t see her, they couldn’t aim. She leaned out and a shot nearly took her head off. Her blood raged in her veins. Every nerve was on fire. She screamed, firing blindly in the direction the shots had come from.

“Rachel!” Knight shouted.

She eased off the trigger and peeked her head out. Knight had cut down one Gibborim. He’d pinned Kappa’s arm with one knee and her throat with another. “Run! That way!” He indicated away from where they had come, the other side of the bazaar, retracted his whip-knife, and slid the blade through his victim’s face.

Rachel grimaced and took off running. More shots rang out behind her. A lance impacted the wall beside her and stuck there. The shriek died in her throat and she dashed around the corner.

Angels, Angels! If they took the Sefer, sooner or later they’d crack it. God, maybe even letting her brother have it would have been better.

Heartbeats later, Knight was beside her, pulling her along. More soldiers appeared in front of them. Knight plowed into them before they even realized he was there. “Go! Out the hatch!”

Back to the streets?

But the Undercity was obviously not going to shelter them any longer. Rachel ran, twice losing her footing and colliding with the wall, once almost tumbling into the river of sewage.

Holy shit.

She ran until her heart felt like it would give out. And then she kept running.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

If Knight has not violated the First Commandment, I am left still considering the possibility, however remote, that his ancestors may have indeed been subjected to Angel experiments to create the legendary twelfth race, the Nephilim… Is it possible? Could they have truly tried to unlock the entirety of human potential in a single bloodline?

Caleb didn’t exactly enjoy reports. He liked people. Well, he liked women, anyway. Much, much more than he should. He glanced again at his wife’s picture, rather than focus on Rebekah’s lips as she read to him about trade numbers throughout Andromeda. It was the largest galaxy in the Local Group, the heart of the Mizraim Empire, and the biggest chance at profit for any corporation—it boasted a hundred thousand inhabited worlds. So even though Caleb’s offices remained in the Milky Way, he had to listen to endless reports about Andromeda.

Rebekah Norris had the voice of a siren. Pure, silky, sensual. And she would be so nubile. He’d have her soon, he could see it in her eyes. The way they dilated when he looked at her like that. He could see the slight flaring of her nostrils. Eyes like his saw so much more than a normal person’s.

He shouldn’t feel guilty, right? Most people didn’t even believe in marriage these days. It was just the Third Commandment, that was all. Just the need to spread his DNA… No. His wife was a wonderful woman and he…

His screen flashed with an incoming call. Sarah Radison.

Caleb shut his eyes, trying to calm his mind. He swallowed hard. “That’s enough for now, Rebekah. I’ll call for you in a bit.” They had so many things to go over. Deeply…

He shook his head again, and his assistant left. “Receive call.”

Sarah’s face appeared, her eyes taut, her mouth stern. The woman should have learned to use her sensuality. Caleb found the bitter wretch routine even more annoying in women than men. Maybe because he was twice as likely to fire men for it, so he had to put up with it longer from women. “There are Sentinels on Gehenna!” she snapped.

Caleb nodded. That answered that. He’d known they would show up sooner or later, he was just hoping it would be later.

“You knew? Why wasn’t I told?”

“So you could do what, exactly, Sarah?” Caleb chewed his thumb. “Prepare for them? Offer them a welcome party? Focus on the goal.”

“I can do my job best when I have all the information.”

“I’ll decide what you need to know, my dear. Now be a good girl and get me my Sefer.”

Her face simmered with such rage Caleb could barely hide his smirk. It was far too easy to get under her skin, and her vitriolic nature almost demanded he do so at every opportunity. “And the Sentinels?” she growled through clenched teeth.

“Don’t shoot first.” Indeed, probably not a good idea to shoot at Sentinels at all. In fact, he was glad he wasn’t on that planet. Jericho Corp might be outside their jurisdiction, at least officially, but the bastards were volatile, pushy, and a little too damn good at their jobs. They were people who took themselves a bit too seriously. “But don’t let them stop you, either.”

“Brilliant, Caleb. I’m supposed to keep them out of the way without actually engaging them?”

He shrugged. “Pretty much. Can’t handle the job?”

Sarah looked away at something. “I can handle anything. My best agent is closing in on the traitor. We expect to have him dead, and the Jordan girl in custody, within the hour.”

Caleb grinned. Now that was what he liked to hear. “I knew I could count on you, my dear.” Of course, he’d had his doubts, but she didn’t need to know that. “I’ll be sending a ship to meet you. Be prepared to hand over both Jordan and the Sefer. No more surprises.”

“And if the Sentinels do interfere?” she said, then spread her hands.

“I guess you’ll find out just how effective your new and improved Gibborim are. If the Sentinels cannot be redirected without violence, then make sure no one lives to report back to the Empire. We don’t want any questions.”

Dead Sentinels would raise questions, but if it came to violence, that couldn’t be helped. And with the Sefer Raziel, the board would likely support him against the Empire.

“By the way, how are the reflex enhancers working?”

Sarah nodded. “I gave you a report.”

“I’m sure you did.” He chewed his thumb and waited for her to elaborate. If there was a report, Rebekah hadn’t gotten around to reading it to him yet. And he rarely bothered reading reports himself. Unless something was dire, or needed to be concealed even from her.

“Mixed results. All subjects exhibited increased reaction speed, but only a handful reached the potential we hoped for. It’s possible some subjects are simply more suited to the implants than others, but further tests and refinements will be needed to be sure.”

“Good. Good. Well then, carry on. Mazzaroth off.”

The screen cut out. Part of him wished he could see the trials live. But vid recordings of such experiments were moronic. Shame though, since the new Gibborim might put even Sentinels to shame when it came to hand-to-hand.

It would have been a pleasure to watch.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

And yet, preternatural reflexes aside, Knight matches none of the known reports of Angel capabilities. They were supposed to be masters of all four known psionic disciplines—empathy, telepathy, ESP, and even telekinesis, the rarest of psionic gifts. Yet Knight isn’t a Psych at all.

The hoverbike shot out of the alley, Rachel clinging to Knight’s waist. Sirens flared above them. Over the horizon, a hover carrier closed in, spotlights sweeping the streets.

Everything happened so fast she could barely think. It was like the Gehennans had thrown the entire military against her. And why not? Whoever had the Ark had the power to control the destiny of mankind, if stories could be believed.

Knowledge was power. And the Ark might offer absolute knowledge.

“Any brilliant ideas?” Knight shouted back at her, steering through another alley. He was probably trying to dart between buildings, spaces too narrow for carriers to follow.

From the moment they exited the Undercity, the government troops had been onto them. The hum of a half dozen hoverbikes echoed just meters behind them, and he was asking her for advice?

“You’re the bodyguard! Get us out of here!”

“Yeah, thanks! I got that part!” He jerked the bike right, zipping out into another street. Knight was good, she’d give him that. He bobbed around hovers, weaving in and out of fast-moving traffic.

Rachel spared a glance over her shoulder. Gibborim on hoverbikes darted into traffic too, at least five of them. “Knight!”

“I know.”

He adjusted some dial on the handlebar and the bike jumped upward, its hover jets going into overdrive. Knight used the added lift to angle them over a hover, sending them literally flying through the air.

Rachel’s stomach lurched. Hovering was one thing, but the jets on this bike weren’t designed for flying.

The bike dropped like a stone and actually collided with the street, streaking along it. The scraping shriek of metal made her head ring, and sparks flew all around her, before the hoverbike bounced back up to its usual altitude of about a meter off the ground.

The hover they’d jumped veered out of control, its driver blaring a siren at their insane maneuver. Knight darted the bike around another hover. He’d really lost his mind. But then, what else could he do?

A lance impacted a hover just behind them. The hover twisted, slammed into another, and both careened into a building. An explosion rocked behind them, but they were going so fast Rachel never even felt the heat.

A carrier crested the corner ahead. Shots retorted along the road, tearing it to pieces. Exploding asphalt and metal roared in a shower around her. Rachel screamed. A nearby hover was torn in half by MAG slugs. A wave of heat washed over her, almost threw her off the bike.

Knight spun it around, gunning right into the flow of oncoming traffic. Her scream was lost in her throat. Hovers zipped by so fast she couldn’t track them, and Knight somehow dodged the bike around them.

He pulled the mono sword from his coat.

“What the—”

One of the Gibborim bikes zoomed by and Knight cleaved through it. The top half flipped forward, spinning through the air and crashing into the road ahead. A cascade of explosions erupted behind them.

“Holy shit!” God, don’t let them die here. Please, God, please God!

Another Gibborim spun a hoverbike around, mimicking Knight, mono blade in hand. The Gibborim raced past swinging. Knight parried the thrust and rammed his blade into the bike’s rear thruster. The other bike flipped vertically, slamming the Gibborim into the ground at hundreds of kilometers an hour. A hover crashed into the wreck. Even through her breather Rachel smelled fumes an instant before the pileup exploded.

Rachel whimpered, trying not to lose her grip on Knight. She considered herself a tough girl. But holy shit, Gibborim were having a sword fight on hover bikes traveling in opposite directions at two hundred kilometers an hour.

The street ahead exploded, MAG rounds from the carrier shredding it. Knight jerked to the right, shooting the bike through another alley. A heartbeat later another hoverbike was following them. Goddamn Gibborim just wouldn’t give up!

She tightened her grip around Knight and aimed the MAG rifle with one hand. He’d said not to use it outside, but desperate times…

Rachel squeezed the trigger. The rails charged and fired, but the shot went wide. Recoil stripped the gun right out of her hand. It clattered along the alley, under the Gibborim’s bike.

“Did you get him?” Knight shouted at her.

“No!”

Every second they spent doing this was a risk. Sooner or later one of those carriers would catch them and that would be the end, even if none of Knight’s former brethren caught up. She glanced back at the other hoverbike. Knight’s reflexes might have been faster, but the Gibborim had better bikes. They clearly accelerated more quickly.

They needed to get off the streets. “The Ark. We have to get to the moon!”

He grumbled something she couldn’t catch at this speed, then spun the bike around again, almost flinging her off.

“Stop doing—”

The bike took off again, barely careening around the one pursuing them. Knight headed back down a main street. In the air ahead, a carrier lowered, leveling a pair of MAG cannons at them. A spotlight tracked them.

Her bodyguard twisted the bike and they were behind a massive hover truck, hiding in its shadow. What was he thinking? A second later the carrier opened fire on the truck, ripping it in half. Knight veered into another alley, heading straight for a massive building ahead.

“Hold on to me!” he shouted.

Rachel tightened her grip. Knight steered toward the building’s airlock and gunned it. Angel wrath’s, was he going to ram the—

He flung a chain of some kind at a light post, and suddenly they were ripped off the bike. The sudden jerk sent them slicing through the air. Rachel screamed. Her stomach jumped into her throat. Momentum carried them around in an arc, and they were upside down. They spun down in a full three-sixty circle and crashed into the ground.

The impact stole her breath. All she could feel was blackness creeping around her. Then Knight was pulling her up. His coat was torn. He’d sheltered her with his arms. He ripped off his cracked helmet. “Move!”

The bike had collided with the airlock and blown a hole right through it. Knight shoved her toward it, and she stumbled forward, trying to catch her balance. The Gibborim raced past them, then spun his bike to a stop. This one, Nu, pulled a sword and hoped off the bike. Knight ran at him, whipping the kyoketsu out.

Nu dove to the ground and rolled under the whip knife’s blade. He came up swinging, his blade tearing a gash in Knight’s coat.

A wince escaped her even as she dashed into the burning airlock. “Knight!” Had that hit him? The sudden thought that he might really die protecting her left her dizzy. It’s why she hired him, but Knight always seemed so… invincible.

Knight evaded the next strike, stepping past it and caught the man’s arm, then flipped him around and onto the ground. He kicked Nu’s sword up into his hand, then rammed it down into the fallen man’s chest.

More bikes spun around onto the street.

“Knight!”

He ran toward her and dove into the airlock.

“What is this place?” she asked, pulling him up.

“Government communications tower. There’ll be a shuttle pad on the roof.”

Dear God. This place had to be eighty stories tall. And it would be crawling with government troops.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

And yet, whatever secrets may lie in his blood, I find myself more worried for the man himself. My quest will likely cost him his life, and my own as well. And what will I have to show for it? If the Gehennans get the Sefer, Jericho will overthrow the Conglomerate and we risk giving rise to an autocracy to rival the Angels themselves. I should have left this all buried.

Another decapitated body fell before Knight, the tenth guard he’d killed since breaking into the tower. Rachel hesitated just behind him.

“Move, damn you!” He grabbed the girl and shoved her down the hall. He was not letting her die here, not now. Not after all this. If he thought for a second Sarah would let them go, he’d tell Rachel to give her the damn book. But the head of the Gibborim—Alpha herself—would torture Rachel to death, and do worse to Knight.

Gunfire rang out beside them, and he followed Rachel around the corner. She’d run to a lift across the hall. “Knight! If we take this we could be trapped, but…”

But there was no way they could run up eighty flights of stairs. He slammed the buzzer and the doors opened. “It’ll take time for them to figure out where we are and what’s going on.”

He stepped in after Rachel. A lance impacted the doors just as they shut. Rachel hit the button for the roof. The lift shot upward, but they’d never make it to the top. It would take only seconds for security to stop the lifts.

Knight turned, glancing around the lift. A service hatch in the ceiling. He cut it open, then jumped up to it, pulling himself on top of the lift.

“What are you doing?” Rachel demanded.

He leaned down and offered her a hand, pulling her up when she took it. A second later the lift jerked to a stop and he had to grab her to keep her from falling.

“They found us,” she said.

“Obviously.”

The lift ran on magnetic rails. They couldn’t restart it without power, but there was a service ladder on the wall, just out of reach. “Follow me,” he said, leaping to the ladder.

Rachel mumbled something, then did the same. For a second, he held her trembling body. She was scared shitless.

“Rachel. Rachel, look at me.” He pulled her chin around so he could look in her eyes. “Fear is the mind. Pain is in the mind. Don’t fear, don’t think. Just do it. I’m not going to let you die.”

Her breath came in gasps like she’d hyperventilate.

“Breathe, damn it!”

“Knight… Whatever happens, don’t let them get the Sefer.”

“Forget the damn—”

“Knight! You don’t understand what Jericho could do with this!”

Knight shook his head, then scrambled upward. They couldn’t pull this off for long, either—maybe eight or ten floors at the most. The key was to come out where no expected.

“Slow down, I can’t keep up,” she shouted from below.

“Trust me, just follow.” Another floor, then one more. He pulled a throwing knife from the sheath on his thigh, then waited for Rachel. When she drew close, he hit the emergency open on the lift outer doors. They slid open, revealing an empty hall. Knight jumped down into it.

Security would know where they were now. There would be troops in seconds. He dashed down the hall and around the corner. What was this, the sixtieth floor? Down the way another lift opened, revealing a clump of soldiers. One led the way out. Knight flung the knife into the man’s throat.

The soldier collapsed and another tripped over him. Knight leapt onto the wall, kicked off it, and pulled more knives in midair. He landed in a crouch, flinging four of them at the mass of soldiers trying to exit the narrow doorway.

The knives struck a few, and the confusion gave him time to close the distance. He kicked off a fallen soldier and forced his way into the lift. The soldiers tried to bring MAGs to bear, but in the narrow confines they were helpless. Too slow, too unprepared for an attack of this kind.

Knight kicked out one man’s knee, pinning a gun to the wall with his foot. He broke a wrist, slammed two heads together, jerked a man around and snapped his neck. A few seconds and Knight was the only one breathing in the lift. He paused just long enough to retrieve his knives and grab a shock grenade from one of the soldiers.

A sharp gasp escaped Rachel. These Mizraim types could be so soft sometimes. “Knight…”

“Go for the stairs, Rachel!” He shoved her and she ran for the stairway.

This lift might be active, but there was no repeating the trick. That was a sure way to get caught.

He dashed after her and onto the stairwell. A series of flights led round and round, each with a wide landing. The stairs would carry them all the way to the roof, he hoped. The girl ran, often taking steps two at a time, but she’d never maintain it for twenty floors.

Somewhere below, a door crashed open and shouts rang out. Knight glanced over the rail. Another squad, pursuing them up the stairs. Sooner or later, Rachel would tire, and they’d be caught.

“Knight,” she panted after a few more flights. “They’re planning an ambush ahead. I can feel it.”

Damn useful skill.

“Which floor?”

“It doesn’t work like that.”

All right then. He flung open a door. “Go! Don’t wait for me, find a place to hide and make your way up when you can!”

“Knight!”

He pushed her. “I’ll make a distraction.” He was good at that.

He shut the door behind her and continued upward, slowing so the soldiers behind could catch up. When they were just a floor behind, he primed the shock grenade and rolled it down the stairs. Then he jumped onto the rail, kicked off, and leapt to the next. Electricity crackled somewhere below, and men screamed.

Knight sprang from rail to rail, clearing floors faster than he could on the stairs. For a heartbeat he might run along a rail, before leaping up to the next. All Gibborim had to master Parkour before graduating. In seconds he’d cleared six floors, something he couldn’t do with Rachel beside him. He’d come back for her when the roof was secure. Soldiers burst through the door to the floor above.

Knight caught the rail and swung under it, kicking a soldier in the chest, then jumping from him onto another. His momentum carried the next soldier down, and Knight rocked back, flinging the man over the rail. The bastard fell screaming into the darkness.

Shouts went up among the soldiers. Knight kipped up, kicked a man in the groin, then smashed his head on the door, cracking his skull even through the helmet.

With elbow, fist, and foot, he dropped the rest of the soldiers. No time to make sure they were all dead. He ran up the last few flights of stairs, then carved through the lock on the roof. He kicked it open and ran out.

Just ahead, a shuttle. He had to get Rachel and they’d be out of here. The moon wasn’t exactly what he had in mind, but from the shuttle she could call that…

Something was wrong. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and Knight turned.

Someone stepped out of the shadows, revealing the Omega sign on his Gibborim armor.

“Hadrian.”

His friend pulled off the helmet and tossed it aside. “There was really only one place you could be heading in this building, Zeke.”

Knight spread his hands and stepped back, falling into a light fighting stance. “Don’t do this.”

“I tried to warn you.” Hadrian raised armor-clad fists before him and strode toward Knight.

“You can come with us! Finally get out of all this.”

Sadness filled his eyes, but Hadrian shook his head. “You know I can’t… Can’t betray her.”

“Sarah? You’re still…” Knight grimaced. “She’s never going to be yours.”

Hadrian circled him, his stance easy despite his taut face. Knight couldn’t even remember a time when Hadrian hadn’t been there for him, teaching him all the ways of the Gibborim. Teaching him to become the perfect killer. Teaching him to become a ghost, a shadow that stalked the night and spread death and terror and pain. A shadow no one could catch, no one could stop.

“It shouldn’t come to this between us,” Knight said.

Hadrian shook his head. “No. It shouldn’t have. You got out, Zeke. You should never have taken this kind of risk. Sarah would have let you alone, if you hadn’t. How many of us have you killed now?”

He wasn’t even sure. The Gibborim had been his brethren, his family. His sick, twisted family that had turned on him. Of them all, only Hadrian had been a true friend. And how could Knight ever raise a blade in earnest against him?

Hadrian drew his mono katana, extending it. “I’m sorry, Zeke.”

But if he didn’t fight here, Sarah would take him, would take Rachel. And they’d both be damned. There was no choice. He’d never had enough choices in life. Why should now be different?

“So am I.” Knight pulled his own sword. “You know you can’t beat me, Omega. None of you are fast enough.”

Hadrian dashed at him, swinging. Knight parried, moved into riposte, then suddenly had to jerk back as Hadrian’s next swing came much faster than it should have. Knight parried, ducked, dodged, and rolled away.

What in the holy universe? Never, in all their years of training, had he seen another Gibborim move that fast.

“Things change,” his friend said.

Hadrian charged again, screaming and swinging. Knight parried again, turning into a faster riposte. He slashed open Hadrian’s side, cleaving through armor. His friend grunted and shoved, sending Knight stumbling backward. Hadrian’s offense had become more aggressive than ever, and Knight fell back, forced onto the defensive.

Parry, dodge, duck. He rolled under an attack, then parried over his head as another came in fast. He slammed his shoulder into Hadrian, sending the other man skidding along the roof.

Knight feinted with his katana, and when Hadrian moved to parry, kicked him in the chest. The Gibborim stumbled back, and Knight slammed his own sword into his friend’s, stripping it from his hand.

The blade clattered to the ground, and Knight kicked it away. He held his sword up, pointed at Hadrian’s chest. But how could he run him through? For a moment their eyes met.

Then a trio of angled blades erupted from each of Hadrian’s forearms, like he wore edged gauntlets. In his shock, Knight hesitated. Hadrian caught Knight’s sword between the blades and twisted, snapping it. Monofilament could cut through almost anything, but it didn’t make the blade stronger on the flat.

Hadrian’s palm struck Knight in the chest, sending him flying backward almost a meter. The nanomesh absorbed the worst of it, and Knight rolled up, jumping instantly to his feet.

“Angels above!” Knight said. “You’ve broken the First Commandment? You’re cybered!”

Hadrian advanced. A straight blade shot out from the joint of his wrist. A mono blade had rested inside his forearm, the size of a long knife. “It’s funny… First she said she had a way to make the rest of us as fast as you had been, Zeke.”

Knight found himself unable to swallow as he backed away. “How could you do this?”

“We’re Gibborim. We do as we’re told.”

But cybernetics? It was the first of the three rules mankind was never meant to break, never even question. Even Knight—who hated rules—wouldn’t have considered breaking it.

Shirin had broken it.

But it was different. Wasn’t it? She was Asheran.

“What have you let them make you?”

Hadrian glowered. “Stronger. Faster. Deadlier. Perfect.” He leapt forward, the jump carrying him too far, and thrust down.

Knight dove to the side and Hadrian’s blade pierced the roof. A spinning roundhouse caught Hadrian in the face and sent him flying through the air. He landed in a crouch, barely fazed, and launched himself at Knight.

Again and again Knight blocked blows that numbed his arms. Hadrian’s blade ripped right through his coat and tore open the flesh beneath. Nanomesh couldn’t stop a mono blade. Hadrian’s arm spikes sliced a gash on Knight’s face.

Blood dripped into his eyes and he allowed himself to fall, kicking out both legs. He caught Hadrian’s knees, tripping him. Knight rolled away, jerking his kyoketsu free and extending it.

Hadrian eyed the lethal chain.

“You’re not leaving me any choice!” Knight shouted. Please. Just let him back off.

“There are never choices,” Hadrian said, rising. He flung his hand toward Knight and a pair of knives flew forward.

Knight leapt, flipping sideways over them and swinging the kyoketsu. Hadrian ducked under it and drove forward, trying to impale Knight.

Instead, Knight turned, kicking Hadrian in the back of the knee and shoving him forward. Hadrian stumbled toward the edge of the roof. Knight whipped the kyoketsu down at his friend, slashing across his face.

Hadrian screamed as the mono edge tore through one of his eyes. There was no choice. No pain. No fear. No hesitation.

Knight continued his spin, leaping and whipping the kyoketsu down in an arc. Hadrian raised his arm to block on instinct. The kyoketsu carved right through arm and into his throat. Hadrian fell, stumbling backward over the rail, and tumbled off the building.

His friend’s weight yanked the kyoketsu right out of Knight’s hand, and he let it fall. Everything fell with it, and Knight dropped to his knees, panting.

His hands shook and he clawed fruitlessly at the ground. He screamed, roared at the dying sun above.

All he had known had fallen.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

It’s impossible to say if any Race of Man is truly without a history of genetic engineering. All we know about our past following the Exodus, at least in the first years, is what the Angels told us. Still, one of the races, those without overt signs of genetic tampering, has always been called Norms—as if the rest of us were abnormal. They say Norms represent the first race, and yet, they are not terribly common.

David burst through the door to the roof as one man drove another off the building. The chaos in the streets, the hundreds of dead, had made tracking Rachel here easy. She’d left a wake of destruction beyond even what he’d expected.

And that was the man he’d seen with Rachel, a Gehennan, most likely. He knelt near the lip of the roof, screaming incomprehensibly. A rage, so intense even David’s psionic nerves felt it, seeped off. It was matched only by the man’s despair. And where was Rachel? Had this bugger lost her? If so, he’d soon learn what real pain was.

“Take him alive,” he said to Phoebe.

They needed to find out what he knew if they were going to locate Rachel. Given all the activity, she had to be nearby. The lass seemed to have gotten the entire damn planet riled up against her. She was like that sometimes.

Phoebe drew her pulse pistol and advanced on the blond man, who rose from his knees and turned to them. She pointed the pistol at him, and he stared her down.

“Hands behind your back and turn around,” she said, her voice slightly distorted by her breather.

“How about you turn around and bend over.”

David shook his head. Wrong line. Phoebe would rip him a new arse for that. She backhanded him. Or tried. He caught her wrist and spun, flipping her around and twisting the pulse pistol loose. He kicked her, sending her tumbling over the edge of the building.

“Phoebe!”

David ran at her attacker. He was cut up, bleeding from dozens of scrapes. David spared a glance at Phoebe, who had caught herself on the lip of the building.

In that instant, the blond man was on him. David blocked the man’s attack, trying to turn each against his foe. The Sentinel Merkabah style was feared throughout the universe for its efficiency. Three times he countered, but the Gehennan was so fast it allowed him to overcome every slight flaw in his defenses.

And then his foe had an arm around David’s neck and hurled him to the ground. A throwing knife spun at his face and David barely got his arm up to block it. It clattered off his suit.

The man started to move in on him, then leapt to the side and attacked Phoebe. She must have recovered and tried to pull the electrolaser. Rachel’s friend kicked it out of her hand.

She blocked his attacks, her form near perfect, but looking as overwhelmed by the man’s sheer speed as David had been. David rolled up and drew his pulse pistol. He needed this guy alive, but there was a limit to how far he’d risk his crew.

The man caught Phoebe’s arm and spun her through the air, flinging her at David. He stepped aside to avoid her, and the Gehennan slammed into his chest, catching his wrist and spinning him around. In the tumult, David’s finger pressed the trigger. Plasma pulses shot off in rapid succession, blasting into the nearby shuttle, scoring the hull.

The Gehennan stripped the gun from his hand, but David caught him with a tight hook in the ribs, making the man drop it, too. His uppercut came up fast and should have floored the bloody bugger, but the man bent back at an impossible angle and kicked out one of David’s legs.

Phoebe rushed him, launching a barrage of blows, turning and countering his responses. Then she reeled back when his knuckles cracked over her jaw with a sound that made David wince.

He roared, rising and charging the man. The Gehennan met David with both palms forward, shoving him back.

Stay calm. The man’s defenses had weaknesses. He was fast as the void, but his training was not perfect. David took two steps back, feinting one way and another, drawing the Gehennan toward him. The man dropped for a spinning sweep, and David leapt up to kick him in the face.

And then the Gehennan twisted to the side so fast David didn’t even see it. The man was up behind him, and a fist repeatedly slammed into David’s kidney. His suit absorbed enough of the blows to keep him from buckling. He jerked his elbow back, catching the man in the chest.

He stumbled back a step, then rushed forward.

A blast of lightning struck him in midair, hurling him into the shuttle. He bounced on impact, and landed hard.

Phoebe knelt a few feet away, electrolaser clutched in her hands, blood streaming down her split lip.

The man struggled to rise. David had to hand it to him. That shot should have downed just about anyone. An electrolaser didn’t usually kill, but against an unshielded target it delivered a large enough charge to leave a man twitching on the ground.

The pain should have floored the blond man.

As David advanced the Gehennan tried to fling a throwing knife at his head. David knocked it aside with his armor, then slammed his fist into the man’s face. The Gehennan fell, and David kicked him to make sure he stayed down.

Phoebe stumbled over beside him. “Did that guy just take on two Sentinels?” Her mouth sounded thick, and worn. Blood spilled out when she spoke.

“Aye, damn near took down two of us, I’d say.” And after fighting someone else, it appeared. Whoever this guy was, there was something unnatural about him. No one reacted that quickly, not even with Sentinel training. And he’d been good, too. If his training had been on the same level as David’s, Maybe they’d be the ones lying unconscious on the roof. Or worse.

“Restrain him. And check him for cybers. He’s too damn fast.” He glanced at her. “On second thought, inject yourself with nanobots to work on that jaw. I’ll restrain him.”

He clasped magnetic cuffs around the man’s hands, pinning them behind his back. A quick scan of the Gehennan revealed no cybernetics. No breather, so he must have been a Smogger.

He yanked the man up and threw him over his shoulder.

“You got a sedative on you?” he asked.

Phoebe nodded, working her jaw.

“Give it to him. Don’t want this bugger waking up until he’s secured in the brig.”

She did, injecting the man. That would keep anyone out cold.

Now he just had to find Rachel.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Most of the rest of the universe fears Sentinels. Of course, citizens of Mizraim depend on them a great deal, as protectors and keepers of order, but the Sentinels are more than that. Mankind was driven to the brink of extinction, and after the Angels saved us, a few became dedicated to ensuring no alien force could ever threaten our survival again. They became the first Sentinels, a force later co-opted by the Shekhinah.

The storeroom had no security camera, so Rachel was probably safe there for a moment. But only a moment. Security was everywhere in here, and the government must have sent damn near every Gibborim on the planet after them. How many could Knight really fight?

A lump built in her throat. Somewhere along the line, the thought of him being killed had become sickening. Part of her couldn’t stand him—his arrogance, his feigned indifference. And yet, he was there, protecting her. Maybe dying for her. And whatever he claimed, deep down, she knew there was a real man under that armor.

And he’d been gone too long. Far, far too long. She cracked open the door, peering out. Another squad of soldiers rushed by, holding those vicious lancerods. The moment they passed around the corner she ran out.

Knight must have gone to the roof to secure it. She had to get up there and find him. She flung open the door to the stairwell and ran out into it. A shout went up from a few floors down.

A squad of soldiers pointed up at her and started running. Damn. Today sucked.

She dashed up the stairs, taking them two, sometimes three at a time. She had several floors’ head start on her pursuers. Enough to get to the roof. Her breath came in gasps. She needed rest or she’d pass out. But there was no rest.

A grunt echoed from below, then she spotted one of the Gibborim jumping from rail to rail. In seconds he landed ahead of her and pulled a mono sword.

Rachel threw herself forward in a roll, coming up past him and making a mad scramble for the door. She ducked as she ran and a throwing knife whizzed past her ear.

The door flew open and a cold-worlder in a Sentinel uniform stepped through. Rachel stumbled to a stop and fell on her ass. She rolled away, then under the guardrail and fell down to the next level.

She tried to catch herself, but hit the rail too hard. A sting ran through her hands and she fell, barely grabbing the ledge with one hand. Her arm was going to rip out of socket. God! She swung, tried to bring her other hand up, and missed it.

“Rachel!”

That was David’s voice. What was he doing here?

She tried to look up at him, and her hand slipped. She screamed and fell, then caught the next rail. It slapped her arms, felt like a break, but she couldn’t let go. More than seventy stories down from here. The thought made her clench her eyes shut. Don’t look down. Don’t look down.

She had to pull herself under the rail.

“Rachel, we’ve got your friend,” David shouted from above.

Knight? He had Knight? It was almost hard to believe even David could pull that off. On the other hand, they said Sentinels had the finest combat training in the universe.

Hands roughly grabbed her and pulled her up. A Gehennan soldier flung her against the wall, and she stumbled down.

“Secure the bitch,” one said.

A sizzle from above, then a torrent of plasma pulses ripped into two of the soldiers. Flung them into the wall above her, and burned right through their armor and skin. The acrid stink of singed flesh reached her and she almost vomited.

No time. She shoved a Gehennan returning fire at the Sentinels, and he tumbled over the rail. “The bitch is secure!” she shouted after him.

She paused to grab a fallen soldier’s MAG, then raced toward the stairs. She had to get to Knight. She couldn’t leave him on this planet. And David was certainly better than the Gehennans.

A Gibborim leapt over the rail in front of her, this one marked Beta. Son of a… Rachel spun on her heel. A moment later, David leapt down the flight of stairs and landed in front of the Gibborim. The assassin rushed David, weaving a sword in and out of an intricate dance.

David fired his pulse pistol and at least a dozen rounds slammed into the charging man, hurling him away. Apparently the atmosphere didn’t interfere with the electromagnetic rails in those guns. Rachel scowled. Shame civilians weren’t allowed to buy pulse pistols. QI had an exclusive contract with the Sentinels for the technology.

“Mac?” He was here. Why was he here? She resisted the sudden urge to embrace him, unsure if it had come from his emotions or her own. How had he found her?

“Come with me.”

“What in the holy universe are you doing here? What, did you come for the tablet yourself? Seriously? I thought I could count on you, Mac! You would barely help me before, and instead you’ve come here to steal my treasure for—”

“Your treasure? What happened to it belonging to humanity?”

The other Sentinel hurried down the stairs, carrying Knight over her shoulder. “Not that I mind lugging a heavy… lug around,” she said, “but do you think we could get on with it? I have an appointment.”

“Phoebe’s right, Rach.” David grabbed Rachel and pulled her close, then lifted her in his arms. “Hold on tight, lass.”

What choice did she have? Her heart raced, and she felt herself flushed. Being in his arms again left her woozy and more comfortable than she’d like.

David climbed the rail and jumped. Rachel murmured, clutching his chest, as wind ripped past her and they fell so fast she couldn’t make anything out. Then David shifted her and pressed something on his forearm. Their descent suddenly slowed as a grav-net formed around them. He landed hard in a crouch, and rose almost immediately, barely slowed by the seventy-story fall.

David deposited her on her feet, and Rachel rushed out the doorway. A moment later, the cold-worlder landed where Rachel and David had just stood.

“Oomph,” she said. “You got the way better passenger.”

“Aye,” David said, and pushed Rachel back behind him. “We’ve got a ways to go to reach the shuttle, lass. Stay close.”

She had no choice. At this point, any chance to get off Gehenna was worth it. But she had no intention of giving the Sentinels her work, either.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

The Sentinels became the most feared fighting force in the history of man. Their training, mindset, and technology set them light years above any opposition. In modern times, Asherah may pose a technological threat to Mizraim, but the Sentinels retain finer training, discipline, and likely psionics.

David was glad to be back on the Logos. His Smogger lungs let him breathe on Gehenna, but it still stank. The chase from the city had been a bit more intense than he’d like, and they’d had to call in support from the Logos. After a couple of drones had shot down a hover cruiser, the Gehennans had changed their minds about pursuing them.

Waller had been all too pleased to get the Sefer. He’d ordered Rachel and Knight held in separate cells in the brig, and had secluded himself in his quarters to pour over the Sefer. It was only moments before he’d summoned David in.

“It’s in code, McGregor.”

“Sir?”

“The Sefer—I can’t read it. Even the computer isn’t sure how to crack this, and I don’t dare feed it into the Mazzaroth.”

No. The Mazzaroth was a quantum computer, it could undoubtedly crack any code. But then, that information would be out there in the ether, for anyone who knew where to look.

“Your friend must know how to read the damn thing,” the captain snapped. “Find out. This book is the key to saving the empire. They passed me over for promotion, McGregor. Thought I hadn’t done enough for Mizraim lately? Now we will. Get that information, or I will.”

David saluted, restraining the urge to sigh. This was turning into a very long day. What he wouldn’t give for a nice hot soak in a New Rome bathhouse. Instead, he found himself taking the lift down to the brig.

The Logos brig supported twenty cells on two different levels, each cell visible through a wall of half-meter thick glass. Few prisoners occupied these cells now. Rachel, her friend Knight, and a couple of smugglers they’d caught a while back and not had time to transfer.

Rachel sat on the cot. The smart glass could become one-way so prisoners couldn’t see out, but that was usually reserved as a punishment. David watched her, and she stared at him blankly. Her expression was painfully empty, as if she didn’t even know him.

And why not? He’d come here and crushed her dreams.

He entered his access code into the panel, and a section of the glass slid into the floor. When the door was closed, the seam was so small you couldn’t even feel it by running your finger over it.

“Rach.” God, part of him had always known she’d wind up in a situation like this. Locked away because of that she just would not conform. People feared that, and they’d do anything to keep things the way they knew them. Even lock away a lass whose only crime was seeing the universe differently.

“Mac… How could you even do this? To me? Oh, I know damn well how you did it! Just following orders, sir.” She offered a mock salute. “Sir, yes sir. Betray my lover? Yes sir, would you like your shoes shined, too?”

He sat down beside her on the cot. “Lover? Are we still?” God, wouldn’t that have been the best. He sighed. “Look, lass. I know you want to change the universe, but our job is bigger than that. We’ve got to protect the universe. You can’t make things better unless we keep them from falling apart in the first place.”

“Is that what you tell yourself? You’re just protecting humanity?”

Yes. “That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

“Fine. Keep it up.”

Och. “You think you’ve got all the bloody answers, don’t you?”

She spun on him then. “No! But at least I’m willing to ask the questions. Not just take the status quo for granted.”

“You want questions? Then how about this one. What does the Sefer say, Rach? Where is the Ark?”

She snorted. “Like I’m going to tell you people that, Mac. Go space yourself.”

He winced. He knew she didn’t mean it, but even he could feel the rage seeping off her—made all the worse because she knew how powerless she was.

“Look, Rach. It’s for your own good, too. If you don’t cooperate, they’ll never let you go. You’re a Mizraim citizen. Tell us what we want to know, and you can go back to your life. Maybe we could even help get your job back at NRU. Anything’s possible.”

She turned away and stared at the empty wall.

A sudden chill rushed through him, a wave of wrath and disdain so profound it left him wobbly. Had she just projected that emotion into him?

“Bloody void! You can’t even set aside your pride for your own wellbeing, can you?” He stormed out of the cell and slapped the buzzer to reactive the glass. Let her stew in there, then. Much as he wanted to help her, if she wouldn’t cooperate, what could he do?

He stepped out of her line of sight and swore under his breath. If she wouldn’t help, maybe that friend of hers would. The ride back to the Logos had given him enough time to study up on Knight a little bit. Information was limited, but if you knew where to dig, there was some.

He paused outside Knight’s cell. The man sat cross-legged beside his cot, staring straight out. He cocked his head to the side when David approached. Since there was no way he was stepping in there for a face-to-face, David only switched the intercom.

“I’ve had time to do some reading, lately,” he said.

“Not really interested in your hobbies.”

He ignored Knight and hefted the tablet with Knight’s file displayed on it. “Ezekiel Knight, son of Gideon and Shahana Knight, both deceased. Raised as a ward of the state. The state of Gehenna. That must have been a charming childhood.”

“Come in here and I’ll tell you all about it.”

Not likely. David almost wanted a rematch. Almost. But the man wasn’t interested in sparring. The Gehennan would clearly kill him, given the chance.

“You’re the one who broke Rachel’s heart, huh?”

What? Bloody void, he was interested in her. He’d known it the moment he saw the bugger on the Mazzaroth. David stilled his jaw, barely able to restrain his retort. Instead, he focused on the tablet. “Inducted into Gibborim training at a young age. Raised to be a killer among killers, with no hint of regular schooling or social interactions.”

Knight glared at him.

David shrugged. He supposed the background explained what an arse the man was. “And then, three years ago, discharged from the Gibborim without any explanation. All records of the event are sealed. Care to elaborate?”

“Not really.”

Fine. “So the ex-assassin turns mercenary, takes a number of dangerous jobs, leaving bodies in his wake. And somehow ends up working for Rachel Jordan, Angelologist. How did you find her?”

“She was a delight.”

Son of a bitch. David slapped the glass before he realized what he was doing.

Knight smirked. “Warm and soft, in all the right places. The way she cooed when she was just on the edge of—”

“Shut the fuck up, you blundering arse muncher!” David slapped the glass again.

Knight’s smirk deepened and he shut his eyes.

God, he was playing him. The little prick knew exactly what buttons to push. He was trying to get David to open the glass.

Instead, David dropped his hands to his side and stood stock still for several heartbeats. Concentrate on the now. “Look. You’ve got no rights, you know that, lad? You’re not a citizen, and we don’t answer to your government. And even if we did, they seem to want to kill you. So either you’re going to cooperate with us, or you’re going to wind up hating life in short order. Follow me?”

The man offered no response, didn’t even open his eyes.

“Tell me what the Sefer says, and maybe we can reach a mutually beneficial arrangement.”

“I didn’t translate it.”

David shook his head. Fine.

He’d tried.

He made a special effort not to look at Rachel on his way out. But then, he just couldn’t help himself. She was still staring at the wall.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

And people believed in the Sentinels, much as they feared them. With the Vanishing, the Mizraim Empire rose and tried to reunite mankind. We believed they might succeed. We believed mankind might know peace. We forgot destruction is part of what allowed us to reach so far.

The chair’s magnetic restraints dug into Rachel’s wrists and ankles. The Sentinel captain had probably over-tightened them on purpose. Jonathan Waller had a reputation for going to extraordinary lengths to protect his Empire. Rachel had done some digging into the man when David was assigned to his ship.

Enough to know the man pacing before her was not someone who would give up easily. He scrubbed his beard, watching her from the corner of his eye each time he passed. Sentinels had dragged her into this circular interrogation chamber almost two hours ago, leaving her alone here as if it might intimidate her. When Waller finally showed up twenty minutes back, he said nothing, just watched her.

Waller scratched his beard again and rounded on her. “Well, Jordan, I have a problem.”

“Try shaving it off. Lice were a problem on Gehenna, too.”

For a moment he sneered, leaned back as if shocked anyone could speak to him so. Then he stepped closer, seeming to dismiss her barb entirely. “I am a Sentinel captain, Jordan. I am charged with safeguarding the glorious Mizraim Empire against all threats, within and without. Anyone who stands in the way of that becomes a threat herself. I hope you follow me.”

Rachel sighed and looked away. If she wasn’t willing to tell David about the Ark, she sure as void wouldn’t talk to Waller.

For a moment, Waller stood there, still as a statue. When he spoke, his voice carried no emotion. “As you wish, Jordan. But understand, you will tell me what I want to know.” He tapped a comm on his forearm. “Suzuki.”

A moment later the door opened. A woman came in and looked Rachel in the eyes. Regret, sadness flowed off her. And resignation. She injected something into Rachel’s neck, and almost immediately the room dimmed, everything becoming blurry. What was happening? What had he done to her?

Drugs… Sentinels weren’t supposed to drug citizens. She had rights… She had…

The woman left, and Waller ordered the lights dimmed. Only then did Rachel realize the entire wall of the chamber was a giant screen. It illuminated, displaying star clusters that might have been the Triangulum galaxy.

“This is Asherah,” Waller said, and the screen zoomed in on a world with a purple atmosphere, charged with electrical storms. Waller’s voice was distorted, deep and resonating through her entire body. The drugs had affected her mind.

Angels above, he was going to indoctrinate her. Sentinels did that? She thought only Redeemers stooped to mind control. She clenched her eyes, trying to hum a nursery rhyme through her mind. Anything to drown out his voice.

Cold metal clamped over her eyes, and they were forced open. The chair spun, turning her to face Asherah as the camera zoomed in deeper and deeper, revealing a putrid city. Men and women, if you could call them that, walked there. Some had mechanical arms, legs, faces. Cords and wires and metal and horror. The absolute mergence of man and machine. Cyborgs.

The worst of all khapiru.

The word screamed in her brain over and over.

They violate the First Commandment.

The camera zoomed in more and more, showing a glowing red cyber eye on a man. The man’s face turned into that of a demon.

These weren’t her thoughts. He was using subliminal messages to interact with the drugs. Rachel jerked in her chair. No.

“No!” The magnetic restraints gave no space to move, but she banged her head back against the chair. “No!” Not like this. She would not lose herself. She would not let them take her mind.

No! Father had threatened… They washed the sins of those they judged. They washed away their minds, all they were, left them little better than drones. Ideas, free thinking, were dangerous.

“Mankind’s duty is clear,” her father’s voice said. “We are meant to follow the doctrines laid out by the Angels.”

Needles rummaged in her mind.

Asherah is the enemy. Only the Sentinels can protect mankind.

Rachel screamed. The entire room swam around her.

God help her. She dove deep into her own mind, trying to sing to herself. What was that song she’d heard a few weeks ago on the Mazzaroth? About searching the stars for love and… Trust the Sentinels.

“Cooperation is salvation,” her father said.

Waller’s face suddenly swam into focus. “Cooperation is your only hope,” he said.

He leaned so close his breath fell on her face. His eyes bored into her. They delved deeper and deeper, scouring her very soul. She was falling, a well of nightmares eating the edges of her being as he dove into her. His presence was a hot lance through her consciousness, digging into her mind.

A telepath.

Get out of my head. She raged at him. Sent waves of hatred and grief and loathing. She would not allow this. Never this. He pried through her memories, drudging up her childhood. It ran through her mind’s eye, the day she walked out on her family, turned her back on the tradition of the Redeemers and earned her father’s eternal scorn.

“You are no daughter of mine!” he shouted after her. “You sin! Khapiru!”

Her own father had called her outcast.

Earlier, earlier. She was twelve when her father beat her with a stun baton for questioning his lectures. For daring to even raise a doubt against traditions set in place millennia before. For two hours she’d laid writhing on the floor, sobbing, whimpering apologies, even when the only one there to listen was her cat, Clarity. Her father had given the animal away the next day.

No!

“Give it all to me, or I will take it!”

“No!” she screamed, tears streaming down her face.

“Where is the Ark?” Where is the Ark? Where is the Ark? What does the Sefer Raziel say? Cooperate. Cooperate. Cooperate.

She focused on a memory of the starfields of the Omega Nebula. Beauty in a million colors, the wealth of the universe.

The work of God and his Angels. Help me continue their work.

Rachel grit her teeth, throwing out more memories of beauty and peace and love and songs and hopes and anything else she could find. Waller ripped through them like a man carving out a rainforest with a heavy blade.

Warm wetness dribbled down her cheeks and over her lips. Her ears and nose were bleeding. Her brain was… He was slicing through her mind. Only a whimper escaped.

Please God, no more.

CHAPTER FORTY

And so the Sentinels spread the near absolute order of Mizraim across the Local Group until a confrontation with Asherah was inevitable. Following the disastrous Asheran War, the Asheran Confederacy went into a period of isolation that led to nearly forty years of relative peace with Mizraim. And given the price of the last war, the Sanhedrin were more than willing to allow Asherah to control Triangulum and a handful of lesser galaxies. Of course, the Redeemers always saw concessions to those they called khapiru as weakness.

The bridge was too hot. Of course, temperature controls regulated it, same as always, but today David sweated, trembling as he supported himself over a computer console. The Gehennan government had sent a second protest over their presence. Since Waller had ignored the first, David didn’t bother relaying the second.

He’d looked into the eyes of dying men, men he’d killed, and seen less rage than what had hidden in Rachel’s gaze. There was no wound so deep as the sting of betrayal. To give trust and have it cast aside.

“The ones who should have loved me best turned on me,” she’d said of her family.

David couldn’t imagine the strength it must have taken for a sixteen-year-old girl to walk out on all she knew. To make her own future in a place like New Rome, a place where everything depended on wealth and status. Her family name may have helped, but she’d gotten into NRU on her own intelligence, drive, and refusal to submit to anyone.

A hand brushed his shoulder, and he turned. Leah snatched her webbed fingers away the moment he looked at them. “He’s with her now.”

David nodded. God, she should have just cooperated. Now Waller would hammer away at her for hours, days if he had to. The endless barrage of questions, sleep deprivation.

“He had me give her Stigmata.”

David turned around and looked straight into Leah’s eyes. Angels above, she was serious. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her off the bridge and into the hall. “Stigmata? He’s really going to…”

“He’s torturing her,” Leah said. “Delving her mind. He’s determined to get what she knows, whether she wants to give it up or not.”

Delving. That was the technical term for it. But most people just called it what it was—mind rape. If she fought hard enough it would shatter her psyche. The Stigmata made the effects that much worse, that much harder to fight. Part truth serum, part hallucinogen, the drug wasn’t normally used on Mizraim citizens, except in extreme cases.

For a second, lightheadedness took him, and he had to balance against the corridor. Not Rachel. No one deserved this. No one. And Rachel was… His. Rachel was his. And he would not allow anyone to harm her. The dizziness gave way, and he knew what he had to do.

He spun and almost ran to the lift, dimly aware of Leah chasing after him. He hit the buzzer to go to deck five, where the interrogation room was located. The lift felt like it travelled in slow motion.

Rachel was in there. Suffering because he had failed her. Because he’d failed to stand up to Waller when the captain demanded the Sefer.

The second it opened, David ran down the hall, increasing to a dead sprint after a few paces.

Rachel.

God help him.

He slapped the buzzer to open the interrogation room. Inside, the lights were dim and Waller was staring into Rachel’s eyes. Blood trickled out of her nose and ears and lips, from where she’d bit through them.

A barely restrained curse died on his lips. “Captain.”

Waller spun away from Rachel with a glare, then stepped out to meet David. The doors closed, cutting off David’s view of the poor lass.

“McGregor, this better be important.”

Aye. Damn important. “This isn’t right, Captain. She’s a citizen. Using the Stigmata on her, this is torture.”

“Withholding information crucial to the survival of our civilization is the same as aiding the enemy, McGregor.” Waller shook a finger at him. “It’s treason.”

That was insane. Treason? Rachel? Aye, she was stubborn, difficult, and argumentative… but not a traitor. Never. “Sir. We’re better than this. We cannot stoop to—”

“To what, McGregor? I’m going to take whatever steps are needed to protect my people! And I strongly suggest you decide where your loyalty lies!”

“My loyalty? How can you doubt my loyalty for even a second, sir?” David’s fists balled at his side. “I have given myself entirely to the Sentinels from the day—”

“Then act like it, soldier. Dismissed.”

David ground his teeth, offered a terse salute, and spun, nearly running into Leah.

“David…” she said.

He stormed past her and back to his quarters. He was in no mood to talk to anyone, even her, and she’d be better off not testing the waters at the moment. Thundering shite! How dare Waller question his loyalty? In his entire life he’d never wavered from duty, from dedication. His every breath he gave for the people of Mizraim. And Waller would doubt it because David didn’t believe in torturing their own citizens?

In hurting Rachel.

He slunk into his quarters and leaned against the wall, lightly pounding his head on it. He’d betrayed Rachel’s trust for duty to his uniform. David strode over to the washroom to look at the damn thing in the mirror.

Unrelieved black on black—a form-fitting suit that accentuated human muscles, protected him from most weapons and extreme environments, and adapted to sheath his sidearm. But it was what it represented that mattered. Over his heart, the suit had adapted to display his rank. Five small triangles, over the single great triangle of the Sentinels. Honor, duty, justice.

And for this, he’d betrayed the woman he loved. For this, she was being tortured, her mind, her essence eroded away by a man he’d once respected. A man who had let fear of the enemy or his own frustration at being overlooked time and again by the Sanhedrin cloud his judgment.

Rachel was no traitor. David was the one who had betrayed her. Was she loyal to Mizraim? Probably. But more than that, she was loyal to the entire human race. She was trying to do what she felt was right for the good of the species. Aye, maybe she was a bit misguided…

The uniforms were black, because space was black, and that was their arena. They traveled in the darkness to protect the light. That’s what it meant to be a Sentinel. But today, the blackness seemed not full of pride and courage, but something else. And he couldn’t stand to look at it.

David spun away, left the washroom, then paused. The Codex was lying on the floor where he’d thrown it. God forgive him, what blasphemy. Maybe all this was punishment for his doubts and sins. But even so, he had to follow his conscience.

He picked the book up gingerly and set down on his dresser.

This was wrong.

Phoebe was off duty at this hour. She’d be in her quarters. And David was going to need someone he could trust.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Given seemingly insurmountable ideological differences between Mizraim and Asherah, another war may be inevitable. And whichever side holds the Ark would surely win such a confrontation. Perhaps that was why Waller was willing to break the very laws he stood for to try to force my aid.

Funny, in all his time imagining the fabled halls of Mizraim, Knight had never really expected them to look like this. A cool metal cell, an impenetrable glass barrier. A couple of brief tries to crack it had proved fruitless, so he sat, legs crossed, waiting.

Locked away in a small room, awaiting his next trial. Just like always. The rooms in Gehenna were not so different. No glass walls to look out in the hall, of course, but a small square of metal with nothing but a cot. Knight had spent far too much time in those rooms, and never thought to return. When you became full Gibborim they finally let you out into the world, gave you all the wealth you needed. You could have anything or anyone on Gehenna you wanted—at the cost of your soul. And it was a price he’d paid so many times.

A thousand times, it seemed, he’d killed men and women, anyone who got in Sarah’s way. Anyone the government wanted to silence. Once, Sarah had sent him to beat a man in front his wife, then rape her. He couldn’t bring himself to do the latter, so he’d beaten her too, and told her to act like he’d done worse, or someone else would.

And in the end, her weeping husband had thanked him. Thanked him for breaking his arm and at least two ribs. Thanked him for giving his wife a black eye.

Thanked him because, when the Gibborim came for you, you knew death stared into your soul. Knight had made himself the angel of death, and he had been so good at it even Sarah sometimes seemed afraid of him.

And in the end, he’d killed the one friend he’d ever had in there. Hadrian had kept him sane, had helped him hold onto the last shreds of his soul, despite the people who had raised them both. And now his friend was dead, cut down by Knight’s own hand. One more piece of himself, carved away by the realities of a universe that cared nothing for him or anyone else.

Hadrian had tried to warn him. He’d told Knight not to interfere, but Knight hadn’t been able to let go. Had pride led him here? He’d had the money to get off Gehenna from the day Rachel first paid him. He couldn’t have made it to New Rome, but did that matter? After spending a lifetime on Gehenna, had some part of him demanded paradise as recompense?

A man who murdered his only friend deserved no paradise. Of course he’d never reach New Rome. Why should he? In his whole life, he’d done nothing but murder and steal and betray, first in the name of a corrupt government, then for his own self-interest.

Until at last he could sink no lower, and he had murdered and betrayed the one person who had ever cared about him. The big brother he should have had. Finally leaving him bereft of any meaning to his violent, pathetic existence.

And sooner or later, the Sentinels would let him out of here. And maybe he’d kill them, too.

The white-skinned Sentinel strode down the hall, then stopped in front of his cell, staring him right in the eyes. Bold, without a hint of fear, though he’d nearly thrown her to the same end as Hadrian. That almost colorless skin and hair—now dyed pink—she was an Icie, wasn’t she?

Knight rose and walked to the edge of the glass. The Icie flipped on the intercom.

“Ezekiel Knight.”

“Just Knight.”

“You’re a fast guy, Knight. We did some scans while you were out. Not cybered, not genetically engineered yourself—though your ancestors probably were.”

He shrugged. “You’re one to talk, Icie.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You backworlders do know that’s offensive, right?”

Should he care? He was a monster. He was Gibborim. He was the whisper in the darkness the Adversary himself should fear.

“I hear Icies are cold inside,” he said, leaning up on the glass. “Freeze a man.”

Instead of recoiling like some prim bitch, she leaned in close, finger pulling her pale lip down in a way that sent his blood racing. “About three degrees warmer, actually.” Her voice was low, and husky. “Makes all the difference in the world, I hear.” She stepped back and smirked. “Not that you’d ever find out.”

Well damn. Knight sucked in a breath and stepped back, trying not to visibly shake himself. “What do you want, Icie?”

“From you? Not much.” She was odd, never broke eye contact. Like her every word was a direct challenge, and she couldn’t give a centimeter of ground. “But David thinks you care about Rachel Jordan. Is that true?”

Knight shrugged, then sat back on the floor. He’d be a fool to care. He’d tried… he’d begun to let himself feel. And look where he was. He’d murdered Hadrian. “She was paying me as a bodyguard. I’m guessing that arrangement has ended.” And where was she while he waited in here? Had she escaped? Was she still on Gehenna? Or maybe she was here on this ship, working with these people. That David was something to her, something that left Knight seething with unexpected and unwanted jealousy. Why? Why did she still care for that prick?

But the answer was obvious. What woman wouldn’t choose the man over the monster?

And so here he sat in this cell. Where he belonged for his crimes.

“A bodyguard, huh? Nice job.”

“You’re the one who shot me with a lightning bolt.” And he wouldn’t forget it if he did get out of here.

“Yeah, those of us in the real universe call it an electrolaser. And do you have any idea what’s happening to your former employer right now?”

“Should I care?” Was she here? Was she in trouble? It wasn’t his problem… She was supposed to get him to New Rome, not leave him in a Sentinel brig to be questioned by some frigid Icie. God, he’d killed Hadrian for her. And what had she done but leave him? Just like everyone else.

Except…

“Now who’s cold?” The Icie smirked at him. “She’s being tortured. You know, if you decide to work up enough moral fiber to care. Or have the balls to do anything about it.”

He shook his head. It wasn’t his problem. If they had her, she wasn’t going to be paying him for anything anymore. Maybe he should just give them what they wanted. Maybe they’d let him go. But Rachel…

Except Rachel had come back for him on that bike. She’d known who and what he was, and she’d come back to save him. She’d tried to protect him.

“Fine,” the Icie said. “I knew it was a mistake to come to you.”

Rachel was an idiot sometimes. An idealist, totally ignorant of the universe around them. And she’d acted like a friend.

Knight had lost one friend already. Had killed him. And if he did nothing now, he’d lose another. Despite all their differences, all the arguments, the thought of someone hurting her, of doing the things to her that his government did to people when they wanted something… The things he himself had done…

He’d never known his parents. He’d lost Shirin. He’d lost Hadrian. Almost everyone he’d ever held dear was gone. And Rachel was one of those people. Even if she chose David over him, it didn’t matter.

Because she still cared about him. As much as Hadrian had, and with even less reason. The insane girl cared about him.

And if he had one friend left in this universe, then he would not fail her.

He stood. “Wait.”

The Icie turned back to him. “What’s the matter? Heart thawing a bit?”

“What do you want from me?”

She hesitated a moment, then hit a button that opened the cell door. The glass slid down and she stepped aside. A trick? If so, he’d make her regret it. He stepped through slowly, eyes pinned on her face.

“The captain…” The Icie leaned close to Knight’s face, so close he could feel her breath. It was hot, and it made his cheek tingle. “David thinks he’s gone too far. He’s going to try to take the ship. And I need someone to help me get to Rachel when he does.”

So. This David really was her friend. In that case, maybe he’d get to live out the day. “I’m in,” he whispered into the Icie’s ear. If his life had no other meaning, he’d tear this ship to pieces and take on hell itself, but he would not let harm come to Rachel. If this captain hurt her, he’d die.

Maybe he’d always be a monster. But there was one person out there he’d never fail.

The Icie nodded and turned to leave. Her suit hugged her form, highlighting all her muscles, from her toned arms to her shapely ass.

“Hey, Icie. How about a mono blade?”

She spun, stepped right up into his face and looked him in the eye. “My name is Phoebe Dana. Call me Icie again and one of us is going to have a bad day.” She shrugged. “And we don’t have any swords available. Get a real weapon.”

At that she spun.

Knight followed her out, only smiling when she couldn’t see it.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

For twenty-five hundred years Angels told us what to think, where to go, and when to do it. And then they vanished. Those of us born now, centuries later, probably cannot image the shock, the utter sense of abandonment our ancestors felt. Some claimed Armageddon had come.

“Apollo is on the line for you,” Rebekah said, sticking her head through the doorway to his office.

Caleb shut his eyes, trying not to imagine the coming conversation. Not one he was looking forward to at all. He had no reason to fear Apollo, of course. The man worked for him. In theory.

“Caleb?” Rebekah said. “Are you all right?”

Other than a pounding headache, an irrational nervousness over speaking to one of his own scientists, and his unsated lust for his assistant, he was doing well enough. Except for losing the Goddamn Sefer. “I’m fine, Rebekah. I’ll take the call in private.”

She left, and he glanced down at his family photo. “Forgive me my weaknesses, Ayelet.” He stroked his wife’s cheek in the picture. Maybe he should have just left Jericho and lived with them. Left all the temptation. But then, they’d become accustomed to a certain style of living, hadn’t they?

“Receive call.”

Apollo’s shrouded face flashed onto the screen. “Update me on the situation,” the man said in his usual emotionless tone.

“Things turned out poorly.” That was an understatement. Half the Gibborim were dead, Sarah was livid over the loss of her best agent, and quite frankly, he was probably going to have to replace her. Which meant finding someone else with the nerve, guile, and discretion necessary to oversee the unit without giving away his involvement.

“Explain.”

“Our agents were killed without recovering the Sefer. Ms. Jordan is now in the custody of the Sentinel ship, Logos, which has refused any attempt the Gehennan government has made to communicate with them. The planet is in chaos.”

To say nothing of the millions of credits worth of damage done to Beeroth in that little manhunt. How Sarah had managed to turn tracking one rogue agent and a civilian with a book into a war zone that had cost dozens of lives or more, as well as a hover carrier and God-knew what else he’d ignored in Rebekah’s reports, he’d never know.

They’d chosen Gehenna because no one was supposed to care about the little shit-hole. Instead, the Empire had sent a Sentinel battleship to the system.

“That is disappointing,” Apollo said, without even a hint of disappointment.

“Yes. Yes it is. Our assets performed at less than the desired levels.”

“Were the cybernetics successfully integrated?”

Caleb nodded. That, at least, had gone mostly according to plan. The reports of Omega had been particularly promising. Which made it twice as annoying to have lost the man. Everything Jericho had invested in Omega’s body was now splattered across the pavement in Beeroth. It had taken quite a cover story to get that cleaned up without anyone realizing what all that metal in his body meant.

Caleb sighed, and glanced back at Apollo. “Sarah claimed he was her best agent. He showed strong test results, and his body accepted all the augmentations we implanted.”

“Then the project was not a loss. We have the capacity to create cybernetically enhanced soldiers. We merely need to find the correct venue.” Apollo leaned forward, revealing slightly more of his face than Caleb had ever seen. Even with his cybernetic eyes, Caleb had never really gotten a clear look through that darkness. Now, he could see the man’s eyes flicker. Were they cybernetic replacements, too?

Caleb’s eyes broke the First Commandment, no doubt. But then, they were so damn useful.

“We must still recover the Ark,” Apollo said.

Obviously. Caleb decided to control the urge to roll his eyes. “I’m trying to organize a government strike against the Logos. If we can recover the Sefer, we should be able to translate it on our own.”

Of course, such a strike might prove futile, but they had to try. Gehennan technology was vastly inferior to what the Sentinels had on that ship, so the cost of victory would be steep. But Gehenna didn’t really matter, not compared to finding the Ark. With that, he’d unlock technology beyond the wildest dreams of the most visionary QI geniuses in the universe. Jericho would be his for the taking, and Quasar Industries would become a shell. Let them try keeping up with the advancements Caleb would release with that knowledge.

He’d have the entire Conglomerate under his control in a year, at most. And from there, it was a short stop to bringing the Empire itself to heel. Or Asherah.

It was almost enough to call Jericho Corp ships in on the strike. But if they failed, his hand would be played. The board would not look kindly on involving them in an open conflict with Mizraim, and if they didn’t back him… Well, he didn’t even want to consider what the Sentinels would do to him.

Apollo’s eyes bored into him. “You’re considering a full strike against a Sentinel battleship.”

Caleb squirmed. He wasn’t used to people reading him. He was the one who read other people. “I don’t see any choice.”

“Because you are blinded by fear and short-term vision.”

Under his desk, Caleb gave Apollo the finger.

“You must think in terms of the endgame. Send no one after them yet. They will do the work of decoding the Sefer for you, then lead you right to the Ark.”

He caught himself chewing his thumb. Maybe Apollo was right. Maybe frustration had limited his vision. Why risk an outright assault on the Sentinels until they had the Ark? Sometimes, you had to back up and wait for the right moment.

It meant he’d need to keep Sarah in place—no time to train someone else. He needed an asset who could be his eyes and ears in that galaxy.

Apollo cut the line, and Caleb called up Sarah.

“What now?” she demanded.

His head hurt, and he let it show. So he wasn’t going to terminate her yet—it didn’t mean he was going to put up with that attitude much longer. “Ms. Radison,” he said. “I hope you don’t think yourself irreplaceable.”

She glared, saying nothing.

“Gather your forces, quell the disturbances on Gehenna, but do nothing else until I tell you.”

“You don’t want us to go after them?”

“Not yet.”

“As you wish.”

He cut the line and called Rebekah back in. He had some time to kill, and he was in serious need of something to soothe his nerves.

“You want me to continue the reports?” she asked.

“No. What are you wearing, Rebekah?”

She looked down at her tight green top and gray suit pants in confusion.

“I mean under those.”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

After the Vanishing, it didn’t take long for mankind to fall into civil war. Many records were lost, so even with all my studies, I cannot be sure of exactly what happened. What I can say is that the rise of the Sentinels under the orders of the Shekhinah was seen by most as the last chance for mankind.

It was a dream. That was the only way David could view his actions. He stood on the threshold of the bridge, unable to buzz open the door.

Leah put her hand on his shoulder. “You sure?”

“It’s already started.” He’d committed mutiny, and all he could do now was see it through, damned though he be. They were armed with electrolasers—he’d not kill other Sentinels—but unfortunately their suits would absorb the brunt of the blasts. Chances were they’d have to physically restrain the bridge crew.

He glanced past Leah, to a handful of other officers he’d known would side with him. “Let’s go, lads.” Then he buzzed the door and rushed the bridge.

David and his fellow mutineers charged in, fanning out around the room. Waller spun at once, his face quickly flashing from surprise to wrath.

“McGregor!”

“Captain, I hereby relieve you of command for violations of Mizraim law.”

One of the bridge Sentinels pulled a pulse pistol. Lightning cracked behind David, the blast throwing the Sentinel against a console. He dropped his weapon, but was up again in a second. David had six officers, the bridge had eight, counting Waller. This was going to be bad.

He rushed the nearest man, who came up swinging.

“Arrest that traitor!” Waller shouted, pulling his own pulse pistol. Another electrolaser blast staggered him, and one of David’s crew tackled the captain.

David traded blows with the officer on him before catching the man behind the head. He slammed down, smashing the poor lad into a console, then slapped magnetic restraints on his arms.

The bridge had erupted into chaos. Leah barely fended off another soldier attacking her. Waller had his attacker held aloft by the throat. David had to end this with all possible haste.

He dove straight into the captain’s abdomen, tackling the Anakim to the ground. The impact stunned them both a moment, then Waller had his hands on David’s wrist. Slowly, David’s arms were pried apart. God, the man’s strength was uncanny. His shoulders ached from the strain as Waller hefted him up by both wrists.

David snapped his feet forward, kicking the captain in the chest. Waller lost his grip and David fell, landing on his shoulders. It stung, but he had to move. He rolled backward.

“You’ve betrayed your commission, McGregor,” Waller said, advancing.

David rose and flexed his arms, trying to get blood flowing properly to them again. “You’ve betrayed your principles, Captain.”

Waller cracked his neck, balled his fists, and continued his advance. He swung and David ducked, catching him with a right hook. It only momentarily drove the man back, and then the captain was swinging again. David blocked, the impact numbing his arm, even through his suit.

Angels above, he’d known Anakim were stronger than normal humans, but…

But David was faster. He blocked and dodged, edging away until Waller overreached, then socked him across the jaw. That sent him backpedalling.

Leah moaned, her sudden terror reaching him through the tumult of emotion around him. Shite. David glanced at her. The Sentinel she fought had her pressed against the wall, choking her. She flailed against his arms, but her blows were weakening. All of David’s other men were engaged.

No time. David pulled his electrolaser and shot the officer on Leah. The pair both convulsed and fell to the floor. David ran at the officer, who rose, turning on him. David swung and the man blocked, falling back.

Then Leah wrapped one of his arms in a lock behind his back and shoved his head into the wall. The officer fell stunned. She bent over him and pinned his hands with restraints.

“You all right?”

She nodded, but her breath came in rasps.

A pulse pistol hummed and Dave launched himself at Leah, throwing them both to the deck. Shots rang out where they’d been standing. He rolled over and fired his electrolaser.

The bolt hit Waller, who staggered back but didn’t drop the pistol.

Tough son of a bitch. David scrambled behind a console as more shots rang out above him. The electrolaser needed a second to recharge after firing. Wait one breath, two.

He rolled out and fired again. The bolt struck Waller, who dropped his pistol, doubled over in pain. David rushed him.

The man came up swinging. His fist caught David across the jaw, and everything blurred. He was falling. Hitting the floor took his breath away. He couldn’t see.

David shook himself.

Waller ran out the port exit. “Activate internal defenses, captain’s authority!”

Shite, if the captain got away they were royally buggered. He scrambled up and chased after him. As soon as he entered the hall, a hatch in the ceiling opened and a pulse turret extended from it.

David dove back onto the bridge, tackling one of his own men who had tried to fire. Shots rang out, the turret sending a stream of pulses after them. Someone hit the buzzer to close the door. David looked up. Leah.

“Thanks, lass.”

His heart hammered almost as hard as his head. A pulse turret would pound through even a Sentinel suit.

His men had subdued five of the bridge officers. David helped them pull down one more. Waller and another—Smith, he thought—were missing.

“How are we going to take them with the internal defenses on?” Leah asked.

Damn good question. The internal defenses only responded to the captain’s authority—and David would need more officers than he had to transfer command to himself. Waller had clearly ordered the defenses to target David, and probably Leah. And could he really take the chance of sending anyone else out there? He might have taken the bridge, but moving about the ship would be beyond dangerous.

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

October 9th, 3096 EY

Seeing Knight come for me like that left me speechless. Even now, I struggle to put my feelings to words. In my life, few have ever truly believed in me. Even if Knight and David still didn’t believe as I did, I knew they were behind me. And at long last, it was enough.

The lift opened to deck five. This was where Phoebe said they were holding Rachel.

The Icie pressed a pulse pistol into his hand. “I’ve configured it for your bio-signature.” Okay, whatever that meant. “You do know how to use a gun, right ninja boy?”

He briefly considered shooting her with it. Not the time.

“Remember,” she said, “these are mostly good people. Don’t kill them unless you have no choice.”

“I’ll do my best.” He took off down the hall. It took only moments before a pair of guards jerked to attention, pulling pulse pistols of their own.

Knight opened fire just above their heads. The pistol had almost no recoil. A torrent of pulses streamed from it, scorching the walls. The Sentinels threw themselves to the deck, avoiding the blasts. Knight kept running at them, then leapt onto the wall, throwing himself over their attempt to return fire.

He kicked off and landed in their midst. One Sentinel he caught round the shoulders and spun him, flinging him into the other. He unleashed a string of attacks, keeping both at bay, driving them back into the wall.

They tried guarding their vulnerable faces, so Knight kicked one of them in the knee, sending him down. Phoebe raced in and jumped on the downed man, slamming him to the ground.

The man swung his pulse pistol round to fire at Knight. He jerked his head to the side, evading the shot, and pushed the Sentinel’s arm wide. A simple twist turned the man around and then Knight smashed his head into the wall twice.

The Sentinel collapsed onto the deck.

Phoebe slapped magnetic restraints onto the other’s hands.

“What, do you always carry those?” Knight asked.

“Yup, yup. Helps when we arrest criminals, POWs, and generalized assholes.” She shot him a wink, and he scowled.

He hit the buzzer to open the door. Nothing happened. He hit it again.

“Got to put in an access code,” she said, typing hers onto the keypad. The door whooshed open, revealing a circular room.

Rachel sat strapped to a chair in the center of the room. It revolved slowly, giving her a view of the surrounding screen. The screens flashed with a barrage of distorted images of war and destruction interspersed with signs of the Sentinels and order. Some kind of metal goggles held her eyes open, forcing her to watch the screens. Even her head was strapped in, so she couldn’t turn away.

What the fuck was this?

He ran to her. The magnetic restraints each had a simple switch to activate or deactivate. The moment he hit the one on her head, she slumped forward. He released all the other restraints.

“David said it was bad,” Phoebe said. “But I didn’t know they’d booked her a ticket to hell.”

“What was that about generalized assholes?” Knight snapped. He pulled Rachel into his arms, then slipped the goggles off her face. She collapsed against his shoulder, murmuring. “What have these bastards done to you, Rach?”

“You came for me?” Her voice was dry, rough like she’d been screaming.

“I… I had to get paid. That’s all. Just self-interest.”

She leaned in close to his ear. “Keep telling yourself that. But remember, I can feel your emotions.” She held onto him for a moment, her warmth filling him. She was all right. She had to be all right.

After a moment, she pushed away, and he helped her stand. She looked curiously at Phoebe.

The Icie strode over to her and gave her a cursory inspection. “You’ll be fine. I’m Lieutenant Phoebe Dana. Commander McGregor sent me.”

Rachel sighed. “Mac… I knew he wouldn’t leave me.”

Yeah, real swell friend she had. Rachel stood shakily on her own feet. Knight turned and started for the door.

“Well?” Phoebe said. “Trust me now, Knight?”

He looked over his shoulder and shrugged. “I like this gun.” It was fast, accurate, and if the gauge on the side was what he thought, had more than two hundred rounds remaining. Damn fine weapon, though Knight still preferred getting up close and personal.

Phoebe smirked. “Yeah. The Rapture. Standard issue these days, but it’s a beauty. The rails fire magnetic plasma pulses almost as fast as a MAG fires slugs, but with a lot more power. These babies can tear through kinetic shields like nothing else.”

Knight raised an eyebrow. “You like your guns, huh?”

“So?” She stepped closer, like it was some kind of challenge. One day, he’d enjoy putting her back in her place.

Instead, he stepped into the hall. Time to get off this ship.

A turret extended from a new opening in the ceiling. It spun toward him, firing pulses. Time slowed. He jerked to the side, throwing himself onto Phoebe and pulling them both down. In the same motion he pulled his pulse pistol from his coat and opened fire.

The pistol rocked, launching pulse after pulse into the turret, which turned to home in on Knight. He flung himself away, dodging the pulses, and slid along the floor, continuing to fire. The turret began to glow with incandescence, then ruptured. A cascade of explosions rippled along the ceiling, blowing out panels for several meters.

Knight spared a breath to glance at a trail of scorch marks on the deck, centimeters from where he rested on the ground. He slumped down a moment to breathe.

Then Phoebe was there, offering him a hand up. “How do you move that fast?”

He honestly didn’t know. Years of Gibborim training had honed his reflexes, but none of the others had been able to react the way he could. They were all fast—civilians would have thought inhumanely fast. But Knight was something else. He just shook his head. “Lots of practice.”

“David’s attempt to take the bridge must have failed. Waller’s activated the internal defenses.”

Rachel stepped out then, holding her head. “You mean there’s going to be more of those things?”

Phoebe nodded. “Almost every intersection. Hang on.” She tapped something on her forearm. “Dana to McGregor.”

A second later an intercom buzzed. “Phoebe, are you all right?”

“We’re fine. I’m with Rachel and Ezekiel.”

Knight folded his arms. No one called him Ezekiel. Only Hadrian ever had. And Hadrian was gone… No. No one would ever call him Ezekiel again.

“I’ve got the bridge, but Waller’s activated the defenses. We don’t have much time before he storms the place. I don’t have enough people to hold it.”

“I can shoot down a few turrets,” Knight said, “but I can’t take on a whole ship’s worth. It limits our movement too much. Those count for more than any number of soldiers.”

The line went silent for a moment, then David spoke. “We can’t take control of the turrets. Those are the captain’s prevue. But if we cut the power conversion from the Singularity Drive, the whole ship would lose power, including internal defenses.”

“Fine,” Phoebe said. “We’ll meet you at the Core.” She cut the line and took off down the hall.

“What’s the Singularity Drive?” Knight said.

“You really are backwater, aren’t you?” He could hear that infuriating laughter in her voice. “It’s a miniature black hole all large starships use for power.”

A black hole.

Well, wasn’t that fantastic.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Beside the training and tenacity, most other military forces feared to face Sentinels because of their signature pulse technology. Pulse weaponry was developed by Quasar Industries in 3075 EY on an exclusive contract with the Sentinels, and such weaponry is illegal for anyone else to own or operate—a crime both QI and the Sentinels take very seriously. I’ve heard of Sentinels spacing pulse smugglers.

Leah rose from the smoking body of one of David’s men. She shook her head, indicating he was beyond saving. “David, you know I believe in you,” Leah said. “I want to say that up front, before I point out your plan is totally off rotation.”

He nodded. “Aye, lass.” But they had no choice. They might race past a few turrets, but Knight was right, they were on borrowed time as long as the internal defenses were up.

David, Leah, and the rest of his lads stood over the wreckage of another turret, the one that had killed Ensign York.

“Look, we have to get to the Core room. It’s the only chance, and we can take the access shaft down from here.”

“You don’t even know how to shut it down,” Leah complained.

No, but Phoebe would. “We can’t shut down a singularity,” he said, “just turn off the converter harnessing the radiation.” He took off running down the corridor. If he recalled correctly there shouldn’t be any more turrets before the access shaft.

A pair of Sentinels rounded the corner, pulse pistols trained. A bolt of electricity took one in the chest. The other fired, and Leah screamed. No time to check. David aimed at the Sentinel’s legs and fired. The man toppled, moaning, and David’s people were on him in an instant.

David dropped down to Leah. She lay on the ground, moaning. A plasma pulse had taken her in the shoulder. Her suit had absorbed the brunt of the hit, but her flesh would be badly scorched underneath. She hissed when he touched her.

“Up, lass. We don’t have the time.”

With a grunt, she nodded, then let him help her up. They ran toward the access shaft and Ensign Stewart threw it open. David had intended to be the first in, but the Ensign climbed right in, heading down the ladder.

“Can you climb?” he asked Leah.

“No choice, right?”

He helped her in, and she struggled down the ladder. Much too slowly. They were in the shite now, and even if Waller didn’t figure out where they were going, he’d catch on to them using the access shafts.

David waved his remaining two men on, and they started down the ladder. Another Sentinel patrol came running toward them. God forgive him. David shot first, catching one man in the shoulder.

The other soldier fired and David threw himself to the floor, firing again. One of his pulses took the poor bloke in the stomach. A surge of bile rose in David’s throat. He’d probably just killed one of his own soldiers.

He scrambled into the access shaft, climbing down after the others. They were going too slow. “Use grav-nets!” he shouted below.

“I don’t have one,” Leah said.

Of course not. The chief medical officer didn’t need her suit fitted for that kind of mission.

“Fine, the rest of you pass her and drop.” His men did as ordered, edging down past Leah and dropping down the shaft. The grav-nets would catch them below.

David climbed down to Leah. “Wrap your arms around me, lass.” When she did, he let go of the ladder and fell fast, streaming past three decks before he hit the grav-net. It slowed his fall and he landed in a crouch, Leah clutched in his arms.

He tapped the comm on his arm as he stood. “McGregor to Dana. Where are you, Phoebe?”

The intercom flickered. “On the way. Deck eight.”

“Hurry.” He cut the line. “They’re still too far out. We need to move. The Core room will be secured.”

His men nodded, and Leah stood on her own, hoisting her pulse pistol in her off hand, her good shoulder heavily favored. She was going to need treatment for that wound as soon as possible.

Time to get it over with.

David buzzed open the door and charged into the hall, opening fire on the turret. It swerved, tracking him. Leah and the other two fired, and the combined pulses disabled the weapon before it could discharge.

Soldiers rushed them. No time to switch to electrolasers. David shot, hating himself for it. He tried to aim for legs and shoulders, but in the chaos of the firefight, at least one man died. And then Ensign Stewart took a pulse to the face. It flash-burned his skin off and flung his corpse back into the access shaft.

Leah shot the last soldier standing against them. David grimaced. It was never supposed to have gotten this bloody.

He ran to the Core room door, but it refused his access code. Waller had already changed the codes. Well, only one thing to do. David ripped off the maintenance panel and fired several pulse rounds into the system.

Sparks flew and the door shorted. He palmed the metal and pushed, shoving it open. No turrets guarded the Core room. The machinery here was too sensitive, too important to risk damage. The room was circular, with a catwalk surrounding a smart-glass sphere. At the center of the sphere was a hole in reality. A vision of nothingness, of oblivion set to consume the universe.

Of course, he knew he couldn’t see the actual singularity. The accretion disc spinning around it was the only visible sign of its presence. It almost looked innocent, some would say beautiful. This thing that could gobble up the entire ship if they lost containment. Bugger this up and they were all dead.

“Hold the room,” he told Leah, and his last man, Nielson. “Hold it until Lieutenant Dana gets here.”

He wanted to turn away from the sphere, to watch the door like the others. But it drew him in. He’d only been in here once before, and he’d never wanted to come again. Harnessing a singularity felt wrong, even if the technology had come from the Angels themselves. Unlimited power, but there had to be a price. Everything had a price.

And one of these things had devoured his mum.

He was still staring at it when Phoebe, Knight, and Rachel rushed in. He turned to Rachel and she stumbled toward him. Her eyes were red, swollen, and she trembled. Psionic pain wafted off her, a disruption in her psyche even he could feel.

And he couldn’t stop himself from running to her. “Rach.”

She leaned against his chest. “Mac. Guess I have you to thank for getting me out of this.”

And maybe for getting her into it, too. God, what had he let happen to her? “You have to believe me, I never thought he would take it that far.”

“Yeah, save the sobby reunion for later, would you?” Knight said, glowering, and turned to look away.

Phoebe stepped past them all and went to work. “This is going to take a bit of time. It has to be done carefully.”

Aye, no kidding. “No pressure, now. But we can’t stay here long.” He hoped they wouldn’t have to, as he spared another glance at the sphere. This was not a place for humankind.

For a while, Phoebe worked in silence. Rachel and Leah both slumped against the wall while Knight and David kept watch. Her former bodyguard was still as death, watching the hall.

A few minutes later a trio of Sentinels charged them. And God help him, David shot them. It had gone too far, but there was no turning back.

And so he waited for Phoebe.

“That should do it,” Phoebe said.

“Will you be able to keep the AG field online?” David asked.

“No, it comes from the Singularity Drive. If I shut off conversion we lose it.”

“Do it.”

She pulled a handle, and the lights went out. Suddenly, nothing held them to the deck, and he was floating.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

A pulse pistol is essentially a MAG, except that the rails launch a magnetically contained plasma pulse—a superheated cloud of ionized gas that rips through flesh, armor, and kinetic shielding with not only the kinetic energy of a MAG slug, but enormous thermal energy.

Emergency lighting flickered on, stinging David’s eyes after the brief bout of darkness. Knight was floating nearby, an odd look of vertigo on his face.

“Never been in zero-g, huh big guy?” Phoebe said.

David hid his smirk and pushed off the wall, lowering his feet to the floor. He activated the gravity relativizer in his suit, and suddenly his boots clanked down to the deck. At least they had emergency power.

“Isn’t that nice, Mac,” Rachel said. “Did you bring enough GRs for the rest of us?”

Unfortunately, no. Rachel could handle herself, but she wasn’t a soldier, and Leah was wounded. “You two are staying here to guard the Core room. We don’t want it reactivated until we’ve secured Waller.”

“They’re not going to be able to hold it themselves,” Knight said.

Sadly true. David sighed. “Aye. Nielson, you stay with them, too.”

The officer saluted, and David took Phoebe and Knight down the hall. She activated her own GR, and Knight just drifted, pushing himself along the wall. Phoebe kept looking up at him and snorting. Still, David had to admit, he was getting the hang of zero-g flight very quickly. He seemed to have an intuitive grasp of his environment that would serve him well under the circumstances.

Many of the crew would not have GRs, only those assigned to spec ops. It would give him and Phoebe an edge, a freedom of movement the others lacked.

“Where do we find your captain?” Knight asked from above.

“He’s probably retaken the bridge. We have to hurry—they’ll know exactly where Rachel and the others are now.”

He ran down the corridor to the access shaft. The lifts would be out, so these shafts were the easiest ways between decks. He switched off the GR, grabbed a rung of the ladder, and threw himself upward. Every few meters he pushed off again, controlling his ascent.

This was it. The bridge level.

The moment he opened the access door, shots exploded nearby, and David had to jerk himself back down, almost bumping into Phoebe. She pushed aside, and Knight crowded them both.

“Well, boss?” Phoebe said. “We’re here. I hope there’s more to the plan. I mean, I love the charge in guns blazing approach—I just prefer they’re not blazing at me.”

A plan? Not so much, really, but that wasn’t what his crew needed to hear. “Cover me, I’ll launch myself out there.”

“No,” Knight said. “I’ll do that. I’m faster. You two cover me.”

David scowled, but Knight was right. Besides, he suspected he had more experience with pistols than the Gehennan did. There were only three Sentinels up there. Knight had a chance. “Aye, do it. And be quick, lad. On three.”

He counted off on his fingers, then stuck his head up and started shooting, trying to pin down the crew without killing anyone. Phoebe did the same, then Knight flung himself out of the shaft, angled oddly up rather than straight out. He bounced off the walls and ceiling at unpredictable angles, sending most of the Sentinels’ shots wide as he closed the distance.

One soldier drew a bead on Knight. David grit his teeth and shot her. No choice. She fell, and Knight collided in midair with another Sentinel. For a moment they spun about, grappling in midair.

No way to get a clear shot, so David launched himself from the shaft. Knight seemed unable to get the upper hand. Not used to fighting in zero-g, he supposed. David grabbed the Sentinel and pulled him down, holding him long enough for Knight to punch him while Phoebe drove the other soldier back around the corner.

David switched his GR back on and clanked down on the deck. Then he dashed around the corner and dove to the ground, firing into the air. Predictably the soldier pushed away to escape. Phoebe came around the corner and shot him with an electrolaser. He convulsed in the air and slammed into a wall, bounced off it and spun into another.

Out of restraints, David had no choice but to pummel the poor lad a few times, making sure he wasn’t getting back up.

He buzzed open the door to the bridge. More shots rang out, but he caught a glimpse of Waller.

“Knight, repeat the last maneuver.”

The Gehennan looked about to argue, then just glared, and lined himself up. Phoebe cleared the top of the door to take position on the other side. She nodded, and once again David counted to three on his fingers.

Then they both fired blindly through the doorway, pulse pistols on full auto. Knight kicked off the far wall, soaring into the room, twisting in midair to avoid pulses David could barely see. A moment later, he followed the Gehennan in, dashing behind a console as more shots rang through the air.

Knight caught a man in midair and spun him around. He squeezed his hand over the Sentinel’s, pulling the trigger on another officer. Knight jerked his elbow back into his captive’s face, probably breaking his jaw.

Phoebe switched to her electrolaser and fired a blast at Waller. The captain had no GR. The blast struck him dead-on and flung him against the screen. His pulse pistol slipped away. And then Knight was up there with him.

Waller swung, and Knight blocked, again and again. Knight’s palm cracked over Waller’s nose, and still the captain fought on. The Anakim might be strong as the holy universe, but Knight was too bloody fast. He turned the captain’s wrist and flung him down on the deck, then kicked off the wall. The momentum carried Knight forward where his knee slammed into Waller’s shoulders.

Phoebe had downed another soldier, and David took on the last, who dropped his weapon when he realized David’s GR gave him such an advantage.

“This the fucker who did that to Rachel?” Knight asked, cracking Waller across the face again.

David pulled Knight off, then grabbed restraints from a downed Sentinel and snapped them on Waller. “Aye, Knight.”

Before David could even react Knight had kicked Waller in the stomach. The captain doubled over, drifting through the air and impacting the screen. Knight moved in again.

“Enough!” David said. “Captain, you’re beaten. Surrender command.”

“Go to hell, mutineer.”

David sighed and nodded at Phoebe. “Get down there and get the power back on.” He tapped his comm to open a general channel to everyone on the ship. “This is Commander McGregor. I have relieved Captain Waller of duty for breaches of Mizraim law. The ship is under my control now. Stand down immediately and return to your quarters. Senior officers to the bridge.”

“Will they listen?” Knight asked.

David hoped so. He’d need at least two other senior officers to override Waller’s command control. With Leah and Phoebe up here he could do it, but it would be better if the rest of the officers cooperated.

A few minutes later, the lights and gravity were restored. Knight suddenly plummeted from the ceiling, where he had been guarding the door. He fell almost four meters, but somehow landed on his feet in a crouch.

Within moments, officers came onto the bridge, some with pistols drawn. One of them, Lieutenant Blaise, stepped up and took in the situation, her gaze lingering on the half-conscious captain. Mahlah was a Whisper—a Race designed for low and zero-G work. A perfect Sentinel. “You’d better have a damn good explanation for this, David. You know we’ve always liked you, but there’s twenty of us out there, and we’re ready to shoot you.”

“Do you know why we’re here, Mahlah? In orbit of a world where we have no jurisdiction? The captain brought us here to steal technology from the grasp of Jericho Corp. And he was willing to abduct and torture a Mizraim citizen for it. I know you’ve seen what Stigmata does to a person, especially with a telepath delving her.”

Mahlah Blaise turned to take in Knight, obvious distrust on her face, then looked to the side door when Phoebe, Nielson, Leah, and Rachel came in. “You’re with him, Phoebe?”

“Yup, yup. With David, I mean. That blond ass is on his own.”

“Mahlah, please,” David said. “Help me gain control of the ship, then we’ll turn the matter over to the Tabernacle. I give you my word.”

Mahlah nodded, slowly, then walked over to the command console, pulling off her glove. She pressed her palm into it. “Computer, communications chief Mahlah Blaise. Transfer command to Commander David McGregor.”

Phoebe pulled off her glove and did the same.

Finally, David walked over and placed his own palm on the console. “Computer, Commander David McGregor, relieving Captain Waller of command.”

“Authorized.”

“Deactivate internal defenses and restore all systems,” David said. The warning lights stopped flashing, and suddenly he found himself facing down a score of confused looking officers. Aye, they’d all have questions to answer in the days to come. He could only pray the Sanhedrin would back him. Either way, he’d done what he had to.

“So before we leave this God-forsaken place,” Rachel said, “can we make a little stop over to that moon? There’s something we all need to see, I think.”

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Sentinels classed warships into three categories—in order of size and power: destroyers, cruisers, and battleships. The Logos was a Tribulation model battleship, the latest and most devastating in the Sentinel fleet. Some rumors claimed a Tribulation ship could destroy a planet in under a minute. Of course, official specifications were classified.

The view from the Logos bridge was like looking down on a world from a floating throne. Never had Rachel thought to see something like this. The screen had shown Gehenna as they passed over it, and now revealed the pocked and lifeless moon.

Her heart pounded as much as it had in the battle. This was it. This was the moment. After so long, it seemed surreal. Every hair on her body stood on end. “There,” she said, pointing at the coordinates the Sefer Raziel had mentioned. She stood beside David, who sat in the pilot’s chair. “It should be there.”

“What does it look like?” Phoebe asked.

Good question. Would it be glorious? Gilded? Maybe carved with angelic reliefs? It was like being a kid on her fifth birthday again. “A computer, I guess. I don’t know.”

“Scanners aren’t picking up anything on the surface, Rach,” David said. He turned toward a crewman she didn’t know. “Deep scans.”

A few seconds later, the crewman answered. “There’s something under the surface, sir. Something big.”

A console started beeping. Knight had folded his arms and leaned against it, then jerked away when it beeped. David shot him a look that would have cowed any officer under his command. Knight gave him the finger.

Rachel smiled at the both of them. There was finally a crack in Knight’s armor, and try as he might to hide it, she felt the warmth coming off him. A loyalty deeper than anything she’d ever felt. And David… David had risked everything for her. He’d given up his beliefs to save her. And he still loved her—his emotions soared with his unspoken feelings, the pining of a heart he couldn’t hide from her. Almost enough to bring her to tears.

“Phoebe, use the laser batteries to cut it out,” David said.

“Yes, sir.” She started programming her console. “Phoebe, shoot the Asherans,” she mumbled. “Phoebe, reprogram a black hole. Phoebe, cut up this moon like a birthday cake. Yup, yup.”

Rachel smirked, and David didn’t reprimand her, though his amused emotions told her he’d heard. Five lasers fired from the batteries, precision slicing off bits of rock. Pieces of the moon drifted away, and Phoebe had other lasers chopping them up so they wouldn’t impact the planet. Gehenna had enough problems. She had to hand it to her, the cold-worlder knew how to master a weapons console.

A massive slice of rock drifted away, revealing a metallic sheen beneath it. The metal was black and seemed to shimmer with starlight, and it stretched on and on under the rock. David rose from his seat and walked toward the screen, and Rachel followed.

What in the holy universe was that?

“Can you get a reading?” David asked.

“Scanners can’t penetrate the material, sir,” the science officer said, “but it looks like it stretches for more than twelve kilometers.”

David turned toward her, his face pale. “Rach… I don’t think that’s just a computer.”

No. It wasn’t. Holy shit.

She looked back at it, as lasers carved more and more of the thing free. It was so sleek with the rock cleared, like a massive board, totally flat. Except… As the lasers cut away more, she realized those were reversed wings coming off the main body, three pairs of them.

“Angels above… It’s a ship,” she said.

“It’s a behemoth, look at her.” David answered. “She’s huge. Bugger me. An Angel ship.”

Knight moved over to her side. “That’s what you’ve been seeking?”

“I guess.” Seemed like it, at least. Her pulse had increased and she had to steady herself on a console. God, the Ark wasn’t just a repository of knowledge, it was a full ship, buried beneath this moon hundreds of years ago. Why did they hide it? Where had they gone? All the answers were down there. All the answers, and all the questions. She was going to faint.

“Is there a docking bay?” she asked.

“That looks like one,” Phoebe said, pointing at the screen.

David turned toward Rachel. “I won’t deny you the moment you’ve been waiting for. Phoebe, you have the bridge.”

He strode off the bridge, and Rachel followed. It didn’t surprise her when Knight fell into step behind her. His emotions were guarded, sometimes hard to read. But she knew he was going to see this through. He’d never leave her in danger. And that warmth, that dedication left her flush. She patted his arm, but Knight kept his eyes forward.

David had returned the Sefer Raziel to her, and she kept it tucked under her arm. No losing this again.

They went down to the hangar, and she and Knight donned Sentinel suits while David started the launch sequence. Rachel’s hands shook when she strapped herself in. This was it. She was going inside the Ark.

“Ready?” David said.

She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

David piloted the shuttle out of the ship and flew down to the moon. Off the Logos, the sheer size of the Ark left her speechless. Twelve kilometers of seamless metal, black as night and shimmering, reflecting the stars themselves, like a mirror into space.

They flew down, inside a hangar that remained open to space. David pointed to a button on his arm. “Activate your helmets. You’ll have two hours of air. We have to be back at the shuttle before that.”

He pressed the button, and the nanomesh seemed to grow around his head, forming an opaque visor that reflected green light. The rest of his suit looked almost form-fitting, but the helmet was largely spherical.

Rachel did as he’d shown her. The suit started to move, setting the hairs on her neck on end. It was literally building itself over her head. Her heart raced. The helmet covered her face, even her hair, before the front piece turned translucent. One-way smart-glass. The internal air gushed when it first came on, but didn’t smell or taste any different.

“Just breathe normally,” David’s voice said from inside her helmet.

Built-in comm system. Okay, then.

Knight had done the same, and was looking around as if disoriented. The visor extended far into her periphery, so she doubted it cut out his vision much, it just felt like it did.

David buzzed open the shuttle door and they stepped out into the Ark. Inside was pitch black. Her visor switched to night vision, revealing a hangar that seemed to go on and on. Theirs was the only ship inside. The deck below was smooth. In the distance she could see a door leading on. She started for it.

David grabbed her arm. “We need to close the hangar first. If the rest of the ship has atmosphere, we’d be sucked out into space.”

“You think there could still be air down here?” Rachel asked.

David held up a hand scanner, then shrugged. “I can’t read anything through these walls.”

He trod over to the edge of the hangar and inspected a console. “There’s no power. Knight, bring me a fusion cell from the shuttle. I think I can rig it.”

“Like I know what that looks like,” Knight said.

David turned toward Knight. Rachel couldn’t see whatever look David gave him through the visor, but she felt his ire lashing out at him. “I’ll get it,” she said.

She reentered the shuttle, popped open the power console, and ejected one of the cells. She held it gingerly. Of course, she knew it wasn’t volatile. The casing made it perfectly safe to handle. And yet, well, it was a fusion cell.

She brought it back to David, who went to work trying to feed power into the console.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” she asked.

“Not as well as Phoebe would,” he said, “but I think so.”

“You think so,” Knight said over the comm. “I didn’t come through all this to get irradiated or blown up.”

Rachel looked around the hangar, but couldn’t see Knight. He must have moved toward the door. He had to have heard David’s warning about decompression. There was no way he’d… “Knight?” Better safe than sorry. “What are you doing?”

“Watching for threats.”

“I’m pretty sure we’re alone down here. This thing has been buried for at least six hundred years.”

He didn’t answer.

“Got it,” David said a minute later. He pressed the console, and the hangar doors slid closed.

“You are going to be able to get those open again, right?” Knight said. “Because I wasn’t planning to move in.”

“Aye, lad, I—”

“Dana to McGregor,” Phoebe’s voice cut in over the comm.

David rose and walked with Rachel toward the exit. “What is it, Phoebe?”

“Gehennan ships are moving in on us, sir. Almost a hundred of them, and a pair of Jericho cruisers are with them.”

“David, we can’t let them have this thing,” Rachel said.

“Aye. Phoebe, hold them off as long as you can, on authority of Mizraim.” He turned to Rachel. “Lass, whatever you’re going to do here, better make it fast.”

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

Nothing in all my studies, in all my experiences, could have prepared me for stepping into the Ark. Or for what lay inside.

The corridors were too empty, too still. Every step Rachel took felt like it vibrated for kilometers. They were running out of time. It had taken more than half an hour to find the bridge, and by now Phoebe was probably in a firefight with too many ships for even the Logos to handle.

The bridge was surprisingly empty. It was a circular room, with a pair of freestanding consoles, and some markings on the same wall as the door. Knight had gone off exploring the rest of the ship.

David ran around as if seeking something, exuding waves of nervousness that nearly sent her own anxiety spiking. “I can’t read any of these symbols,” he complained again.

Rachel tried to tune everything else out. She had to think. She’d seen some of these same markings in the Sefer Raziel. The Angels had their own language, their own symbology they’d never taught humankind.

“David,” she said, following a string of symbols to a panel on the wall. “David!”

He hurried over.

“This ship probably uses a Singularity Drive, too, right?”

“Aye. Anything this size would have to.”

“And a singularity isn’t just going to go out, right?”

He shuddered. “Small ones can, eventually, but one powerful enough to drive this… I doubt it. The Angels would have set up some kind of matter feed.”

“So if this ship is like the Logos, then the power is off because…”

He nodded. “Because the converter is off. There’s a power source, but nothing using it. They must have turned off the converter to make the ship harder to detect.”

Right. She pressed on the panel, and it slid down into the wall. A keypad covered in Angelic symbols rested behind the panel.

“All right, Angelologist,” David said. “What does it mean?”

Rachel turned on the tablet for the Sefer and flipped the pages until she found a matching code. Was it that easy? Had Raziel really meant for anyone with the Sefer to be able to restart the Ark?

Only one way to find out. The pad displayed sixteen symbols. Rachel chose the seven indicated in the Sefer. Something in the distance creaked.

“What was that?” Knight said over the comm.

“Just hold on,” she answered.

A pulse like a heartbeat rocked through the ship. And then again. The walls throbbed, the floor beneath her feet vibrated. A warm illumination spilled out from crystal panes in the ceiling, lighting the bridge.

“Angels above, is this thing alive?” David asked.

An organic ship—hibernating until now. Waiting for someone to wake it. Rachel walked toward the center of the bridge and the floor opened up, pushing out a seat. The back narrowed heavily in the center as it reached up. She ran a finger over the slick seat. A seat for a being with wings.

She sat down and a holographic display sprang up all around her, showing the surrounding space. Angelic symbols filled the air and gauges popped up on the wall like it was a screen. Rachel touched a symbol she thought meant life, and a chime sounded. A second later, air whooshed throughout the ship.

“Angels above,” David said again. “This is breathable air. Where did it come from?”

Rachel pressed her hand through the holographic image of the ship itself, and when she lifted it, the ship rocked, breaking from centuries of rock built around it.

Knight rushed back onto the bridge. “What in the holy universe is going on?”

Rachel glanced at him. “We’re about to change the universe.” She smiled. “Hold on to something.”

She wrapped her hand into the holoship and lifted it up, and the Ark launched into space. A hundred other ships appeared in her holographic display.

“What’s happening?” David said.

They couldn’t see the hologram? Rachel saw a symbol for vision and passed her hand through it. The front wall became a screen revealing the battle. A Jericho cruiser was no match for a Sentinel battleship. But a pair of cruisers backed by dozens of Gehennan fighters might be.

Atmosphere vented out from multiple hull breaches on the Logos. It had cost the Gehennans dearly and the wreckage of dozens more fighters littered space, but more people were going to die before this was over.

Rachel reached into a holographic image of a plasma ball. The ship was speaking to her, speaking to her mind. It was alive, almost sentient. Telling her how to use it. She flung her wrist toward one of the cruisers and a stream of plasma erupted from the Ark. It took only seconds for the stream to cut through the cruiser’s shields and breach the hull.

From there the beam carved a line down the middle of the Jericho ship and the entire thing exploded. The other ship hesitated only a moment before turning to flee. The Gehennans followed suit quickly.

Rachel leaned back in the chair. It was becoming part of her. She could feel its presence in her mind, unraveling its mysteries slowly. It was like the moment between dreaming and waking, as she became half-conscious of infinite possibilities.

Time passed, she couldn’t say how much, and David was shaking her. “Love? Are you all right? Rach?”

She nodded, and shrugged. The moment she rose the hologram faded. “How long was I…?”

“A few hours,” he said. “Knight wanted to wake you already, but I was worried what would happen. Still, we couldn’t wait any more.”

Her stomach rumbled. God, she was starving. The room spun a little, and David caught her. She felt Knight there watching, his emotions too jumbled, too conflicted for her to make out clearly.

“You need rest, lass. We should go back to the Logos.”

“I’ll rest on the Ark—there are plenty of quarters.” There were so many places here she had only begun to explore, so many things she hadn’t even considered. So much her head felt like it would blast apart.

She shook herself and turned to Knight. “Thank you. For everything, Knight. You did more than I ever could have asked.”

He shifted, his sudden discomfort at the praise almost knocking her over. “Yeah, whatever.”

She smiled. “A lot of bad things happened to you on that planet, huh?”

He shrugged. “Bad things happen to everyone on that planet.”

“Maybe I can make some small part of that better.”

Knight raised an eyebrow, and Rachel sat back in the chair. The hologram popped back up, and she directed the ship toward Gehenna.

“Rach, whatever this is, can’t it wait?” David said. “You’re barely holding yourself up.”

True, but she needed to do this. Her mind delved deeper into the ship, reaching its core consciousness. Symbols sprang before her face, and she chose more and more. Every selection had to be made carefully, but the Ark knew what she wanted. She could feel it.

The ship pulsed, and something fired into Gehenna’s atmosphere. The clouds covering the planet convulsed, releasing bursts of thunder. Then they began to break up. Painfully slowly, the atmosphere began to change, the sky turning from black and red to blue. A chain reaction began converting the toxic fumes to breathable air. In a few hours, anyone would be able to walk outside without a breather.

David fell to his knees, watching the screen before him. “Angels preserve us… How…?”

Knight snorted. “Don’t think this means I want to go back there.”

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

October 14th, 3096 EY

The Ark is mine and I find myself reluctant to hand it over to Galizur. I know what I was hired to do, but somehow I fear QI will abuse this technology as badly as Jericho would have. There is more here than I ever imagined. It is not just the knowledge to reshape the universe, but a ship with the power to do so directly. And while I cannot allow it to fall into the wrong hands, I am left with the lingering question of what right I have to this relic.

Sometimes, Rachel felt the Ark in her mind, even when she slept. It spoke to her, whispering things she couldn’t quite remember on waking. It carried with it the sense of vast ancientness, of a being that had watched stars being born and seen them go out.

David said he could feel its presence, too. Not Knight, though. He claimed not to feel anything. Maybe only Psychs could pick it up.

He walked by her side now, as she explored the depths of the ship. They’d spent days doing this and only scratched the surface. David had returned to the Logos, feeling he had to report the situation to the Tabernacle. Rachel had followed the Sentinel ship through the Conduit and away from Gehenna, not eager to be around if Jericho came back in force.

David had agreed to let her keep the Ark, for now. Which was just as well. She had no intention of handing it over to them, although she’d allowed Leah to come aboard to study this strange organic tech. This was centuries, maybe millennia ahead of the organic tech Jericho had developed. The technology to build the Ark itself, to say nothing of its power or knowledge, that alone would be worth killing over.

“Do you still want me to take you to New Rome?” she asked Knight.

He grunted. “I suspect you may need protection in the future.”

She tried not to smile. She was getting used to having him around anyway. She could feel he still wanted her, but beneath it, some part of him had accepted their relationship as it was. And she was glad of it—he was the friend she needed. And he was right, she was likely to need him again.

“Besides,” he said. “It’s expensive to live there. I assume you’re going to keep paying me.”

Rachel rolled her eyes, then paused before a door. It didn’t open when she approached, as most on the ship did. She pressed her hand on the panel and it revealed a keypad with symbols again. Odd. She thought she’d opened all the locks from the bridge.

She tapped in the same code she’d used to activate the ship. The symbols spun, whirring, and something inside the door clicked. Then it whooshed open, revealing a chill chamber saturated with mist. The chamber went back farther than she could see, and Knight felt suddenly pensive. He grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back, then stepped through himself.

She followed him inside, and he wove through the mist to a large tube of some sort, iced over. Knight wiped the frost away with his glove, revealing the contents.

At first she thought it was a person. Then she stepped up, closer. The being inside was humanoid, but had cybernetic… wings. Other pieces of machinery poked through its frozen flesh in a few places.

It was impossible. This couldn’t be real.

More tubes lined the chamber. Rachel ran down the hall, wiping away the frost of a few more.

A cold seeped inside her chest, darker and more freezing than the mist sweeping over her legs.

More than a hundred cryogenic chambers.

And inside each—an Angel.

CHAPTER FIFTY

November 10th, 3096 EY

I have escaped Gehenna in the Ark of the Angels. What I had thought would be a computer is so much more—a living ship with the power of the Angels. More disturbing, the Angels themselves are frozen within. I am left with more questions than ever.

The cryogenic chamber seemed to stretch on endlessly. Row after row of frozen Angels. Rachel’s breath misted the air as she walked through the hall for the thousandth time since she’d found this place three weeks back. Six hundred years ago the Angels had vanished without explanation, leaving mankind to their own devices. Some claimed they had returned to heaven now that mankind was safe from the Adversary. Some claimed they had traveled into deep space, beyond the Local Group.

All were lies.

They had frozen themselves in suspended animation.

Why?

These days, the Ark touched her mind even in her waking hours. It showed her the wonders of the universe—the birth of stars and nebulae, the death of whole planets as stars went nova. But it offered no answers for the question that burned her mind, night and day.

Why would the Angels freeze themselves?

The Ark supposedly held all the secrets of the Angels, but after three weeks, she had yet to unlock even a fraction of them. She paused before a frozen Angel. She looked human—almost. Cybernetics poked through her skin, including, most obtrusively, massive metal wings.

The First Commandment said, ‘Man Shall Not Alter the Form of Man’. That apparently didn’t apply to Angels cybering themselves. What would the rest of humanity think when they learned Angels were cyborgs?

Further down the hall, she could hear Leah examining one of the … creatures.

Rachel wore a thick woolen parka in here, as did Leah. Rachel wasn’t quite sure what to make of the other woman. Apparently she was David’s best friend, except he’d never mentioned her, not that Rachel remembered.

Leah Suzuki was an Amphie, a human whose ancestors were engineered by the Angels for subsea mining. And that was fine. Rachel had no problem with any of the Races of Man—except for maybe the Gog and Magog. What was more unsettling was Leah’s guarded, but definite feelings for David. Whenever he was around, Rachel could feel that hint of jealousy coming off Leah, that whisper of a desire the Amphie probably couldn’t even admit to herself.

As an empath, Rachel sometimes found herself privy to things she’d rather not know.

Rachel pushed her hair back under the parka. Had the two of them slept together? Best friends in the service together … It shouldn’t surprise her if they had. It wasn’t like she and David had been together at the time. Void, she wasn’t sure they were together now. He’d rescued her from Sentinel custody—from torture under Captain Waller—and she could feel his love for her. But everything with David was so complex. The very history they shared made it that much more difficult to move on. And so she pretended it was just sex between them. He wanted more, she knew he did. David had always wanted children, and even this morning the subtle pressures he put on her wore her down.

He talked fondly of helping raise his youngest sister on New Rome. After his mother had fallen in the line of duty, David had to help his father keep the family together.

Of course, she knew she was being unfair to him. To take him into her bed and embrace him in the night, then push him away in the morning.

Like she’d done to Knight. She’d slept with him, then spurned him in favor of David. She had a habit of hurting those closest to her, but for the life of her she couldn’t seem to break free of it.

How could she settle down with David when there was so much more to do? When humanity was still mired in its own self-delusion and ignorance?

She approached Leah and knelt beside the Sentinel. “Learned anything?”

“From what I can tell,” Leah said, “they’re basically human. Take away the cybernetics and possibly divergent evolution, and we could be related. I can’t get a proper genetic sample without opening one up, of course.”

“Can you do that?”

Leah shrugged. “I could probably wake one up, yes.”

“Wake him up? Void no!” Rachel stood. “No way in the holy universe do we want those … those things awake, Leah.”

“But they’re Angels …” Genuine confusion wafted off Leah, which only made it all the more irritating.

“Exactly.” Rachel thumped the cryo tube with her finger. “These pricks saved us, right? And then used that as an excuse to rule us with an iron first for the next two and a half millennia. They indoctrinated mankind to believe only what we were told, and then they left us to our own devices. And now we are still, six hundred years later, mired in traditions enforced on us!” She thumped the tube again. “All the chaos and death in the universe right now, we can trace back to them. They gave Mizraim and Asherah a reason for war.”

Leah smiled, shaking her head. Damn her and her smug amusement, anyway. “He said you were like that.”

Oh, so David had talked about her, did he? He’d discussed her with Leah. It meant she’d been on his mind this whole time? Just like he’d been on hers. So why couldn’t she just settle down with him and move on? She couldn’t think of a single good reason for torturing herself. Except for her mission …

“So the Angels are aliens?”

“I don’t know. I mean, they look a lot like us.” The Amphie rose. “I can’t learn much more about them without opening a tube. And it’s your ship.”

Damn right it was.

“So I guess you should head back to the Logos.”

Leah hesitated, as if weighing something. “You’re a Psych who’s been on a living ship for weeks. Maybe I should examine you. We don’t know what effect prolonged contact with this alien being will have on you.”

It would have been easier to blow the Amphie off if Rachel couldn’t sense genuine concern layered underneath the other woman’s jealousy. Sometimes being an empath made life too complicated. It was hard to hate someone who cared about you despite her own heart. “Thanks, Leah. But I’m fine. Tell David I’m fine. I’m sure he’s the one who put you up to this, right?”

Leah sighed, and left, heading toward the hangar. Rachel trekked over to a cargo bay Knight had co-opted as a dojo. She couldn’t really pay him any more—her funds had run dry since her break with Galizur—but her Gehennan bodyguard had stuck around. He claimed he was going to collect big when she got paid. Of course, she could feel his intense loyalty to her, so his bravado was pointless. And he knew she was an empath, so he had to know she saw through him. He persisted anyway. Maybe his airs were all he had left of his old life.

She slipped into the dojo where she found Knight and David, both shirtless, sparring. Both had tight, hard bodies from a lifetime of combat. Nanobot regeneration had left David with smooth skin, whereas dozens of scars crisscrossed Knight’s chest and abdomen.

“So you’re saying Merkabah came from Eden?” Knight asked as she walked in.

Undoubtedly both men knew she was there. As a rank four Psych, David would feel her. And Knight … Knight just seemed to know. He was no Psych, but he had an uncanny sense of his surroundings, born from a lifetime of training.

“Not exactly,” David said, indicating a maneuver. “Merkabah was developed after the Exodus, but it evolved primarily from a fusion of two styles known back on Eden—Jujitsu and Krav Maga. The refugees, those who became the first Sentinels, developed it.”

Angels above, David was teaching Knight the Sentinel fighting style? That was supposed to be exclusive. People said it was the most efficient martial art in the universe. Fast and focused on brutal counterattacks, Merkabah was never taught to outsiders.

David had once claimed Knight’s training, while good, was inferior to Sentinel training. Knight had those preternatural reflexes, speed no one else could match, but David, with help from Phoebe, had taken him down. So why teach Knight to become even more dangerous?

Of course, the answer was obvious. David knew he’d have to leave. He wanted Rachel’s bodyguard to stand the best chance of protecting her against whatever came their way. And it would come. The universe would come after them.

Weeks of jumping through the Conduit had hidden them from Jericho Corp and anyone else so far, but it wouldn’t last. She had the Ark. The living Angel ship was a repository of all their knowledge and power. It could terraform planets in hours. God only knew what else this ship could do. The whole Conglomerate would be after it.

There was no way to keep something like that a secret. In a fit of grandeur, a self-important gesture, she’d terraformed the atmosphere of Gehenna to cleanse the toxic gasses. And in so doing, she’d created a story that could never be contained. The entire universe knew about the Ark, now. Which was good—the Redeemers could never keep such a secret buried. Except now, every faction from here to Triangulum was probably looking for her ship.

She’d promised it to Galizur at Quasar Industries, but refused to deliver. Refused his calls, even. Sooner or later, the Conglomerate—and maybe the Sentinels—would come for the Ark.

For three weeks she’d studied this place. She’d begun to rekindle her relationship with David. And she’d found peace. Just the calm before the storm.

They would come to take it away from her.

And she could never let them have this ship. Any megacorp, any government that got their hands on the Ark, would force the rest of the universe to bow to their whims. A team of scientists would tear through the database and pry away Angel secrets.

And that was what she wanted … to open the truth. But not just to a single company. The truth was the birthright of all humanity.

A company with such findings could become tyrants ruling the universe—as bad as the Angels themselves. Rachel would not be responsible for ushering in a new oligarchy to subjugate mankind. Her mission was to free humanity from its chains, not forge new ones.

David twisted, flinging Knight to the mat. The Gehennan rolled with it, rising again in a single fluid motion.

A shudder ran through her. She could never let a single faction gain hold of this ship.

Never.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

November 12th

For the first time in my life I am part of something so much greater than myself. Finally, I begin to understand the connection David feels to the Sentinels. But my bond with the Ark is deeper than even he could understand. Our minds are always connected, always sharing with one another. I can almost see how the Angels cast themselves as gods before us.

The Logos’ bridge had become oppressive. When David was the second-in-command, the chair had been a place of comfort, of power. Now he ran the whole battleship, and every time he came up here he felt guilty. Dirty.

He’d betrayed his uniform.

At least, a part of him always felt that. Captain Waller had broken Mizraim law, so David had done what he had to. He’d led the mutiny against Waller, relieved him of command, and sent him off to the Tabernacle for judgment. But somehow, he still felt like a usurper. A criminal.

Maybe it was the utter silence of the Sanhedrin. He’d expected the fallout of his choices to be sudden. Instead, no one had so much as contacted him. A week ago he’d let Waller go. Command would know by now he’d mutinied—Sentinel captains had enough autonomy no one would have wondered before, but he’d expected to hear from them the moment he let Waller go.

Instead, he’d been leading the Ark through the Conduit, helping Rachel run from the Conglomerate, and awaiting his fate. And in the meantime, teaching Knight almost every trick he knew. Yet another crime on his conscience. But Knight would be able to protect Rachel in the days to come, and David might not.

And after all he’d done for Rachel, he’d be buggered if he let her fall now. The lass was his redemption. She was his hope. He had to believe, one day, she would be satisfied with her successes. One day, she would say enough, and settle down with him. He kept telling himself that, because deep down, he knew that wasn’t Rachel. Sometimes, he feared she’d be on a crusade until the day she died. And he would not let her face it alone—never again.

Rachel loved him—of that he had no doubt. He could see it in her eyes. He wasn’t much of an empath, but even he could feel it coming off her. And sometimes, in the Conduit, he could see the children they would have. A prescient vision of the things to come. A possible future he had to believe in.

He shut his eyes and bid the images to wash over him. A warm room, near the top of a high-rise, filled with the scent of fresh baking bread. A young lass and lad, chasing each other around an ottoman. The lass had Rachel’s ochre eyes. David tried to touch the child, and the vision vanished.

Ephemeral, as always. But this was the clearest it had ever been. Perhaps his psionics were really becoming stronger.

“Commander,” Lieutenant Blaise said, startling him from his reverie. “There’s a message for you from the Tabernacle.”

Aye, at last. Maybe all the time in the Conduit had given him prescient insight to the coming message. Or maybe it was just that he spent every moment thinking of it, so it would have to come at a moment when it was on his mind.

“Thank you, Mahlah. I’ll take it in the war room.”

David left the bridge, but he didn’t turn on the Mazzaroth the minute he entered the neighboring room. After so long waiting for this, the moment was here. Judgment for his crimes.

David scratched his head and sat at the table. A second later he stood. Face it on his feet.

“Mazzaroth personal access,” he said, at last. “David McGregor, code Duress 92G.”

The screen flashed on, revealing a recorded message. They didn’t even want to talk to him live.

“Commander David McGregor, you are hereby ordered to immediately report to the Tabernacle for court martial. Return to New Rome with all possible haste and turn over command of the Logos.”

The transmission cut.

David scratched his head. Aye, that was to the point, wasn’t it? He blew out a long breath.

If he left now, Rachel would be defenseless. Knight could protect her, to some extent, but not from the entire universe. But he had no choice, really. He’d sworn an oath. He was a Sentinel, and the Sentinel command had ordered him back. And the truth was, even if he wanted to hide, he couldn’t do it on the Logos. No Sentinel ship could hide from the Shekhinah. He could possibly escape on the Ark, and there was a wee part of him that was tempted, but it was a part he would silence. Sentinels did as they were ordered to do.

And that time, he’d done what he had to do. Waller had tortured a Mizraim citizen—never mind it was Rachel—using Stigmata. It was a clear violation of the law and he was justified in removing Waller from command. He could only pray the Sanhedrin would see it that way.

But the moment the Logos left, Rachel would be on her own. The Ark was powerful, but the lass was in way over her head. And he’d never forgive himself if something happened to her.

“Computer,” he said, “where are Lieutenant Dana and Lieutenant Commander Suzuki?”

“Lieutenant Dana is in her quarters. Lieutenant Commander Suzuki is on the Ark.”

He tapped the comm on his suit. “McGregor to Dana.”

“Commander?” Phoebe asked.

“Meet me in the hangar. We’re going to the Ark.”

“Yup, yup.”

A few moments later, she joined him on a shuttle. David sat in the pilot’s seat, and Phoebe strapped herself in, watching him. “We’re taking another crack at blondie?” she asked. “I’m all revved up for it, sir.”

“No, lass. Can I trust you with a special mission?” He eased the shuttle out of the hangar.

Phoebe looked him dead in the eye. “That’s why they call us special forces. Sir. In fact, they could call us the extra special forces.”

“Lieutenant.”

“Yes, sir. Shutting up, sir. Right now, sir.”

“I’ve been ordered to bring the Logos back to the Tabernacle.”

Phoebe nodded. “So we’re heading to the Ark for a last bunk romp with Rachel before they lock us away? May I say, sir, I’m honored to be included for such a mission, but I don’t favor women.”

David sighed. “Have I warned you about that mouth, Phoebe?”

“Yes sir, you’ve shown special interest in my mouth in the past.”

“Aye, then shut it. I need you to watch over Rachel. Keep her from getting herself in too much trouble while I’m gone.” God only knew how long that would be. “She has a habit of it, you know.” And Phoebe, despite her mouth, was the best officer he had for this kind of thing.

“Sir. I helped with the mutiny. I’m culpable for my actions.”

David shook his head. Another reason to have Phoebe gone. “You were following my orders, based on the illegal actions of our captain. Any repercussions fall on my shoulders. Besides, I’m asking you for a favor, Phoebe.”

“I’m a Sentinel officer. I’m not backing away from that! You think I can’t handle the consequences of my own choices?”

She had leaned unnervingly close to his face, and David was in no mood for it. He pushed her back by the shoulder, clearing his vision so he could steer toward the Ark. “Are you refusing?”

Phoebe leaned back and sucked on her lip a moment. “No, sir. I’ll do whatever you need.”

She said nothing else when they landed, and took off on her own immediately afterward. Just as well. He needed to see Rachel alone.

He found her on the bridge, in the command chair. The one with the narrow back, designed for Angels. He’d seen the Angels in the cryo chamber—of course he’d had to see them for himself. The experience left him shaken. To see an emissary of God, frozen like that … Divinely perfect, with elegant features and glorious visage. It made him feel small, and guilty, like a young lad peeping at a lass through her window. Something not meant for his eyes.

And they were cyborgs … For certain, the First Commandment had been intended to regulate humans, not Angels. But … He’d never thought … Why would they do something like that to themselves? Their very wings were cybernetic—metal razors of too-perfect symmetry. Even frozen, their gaze left him lightheaded.

Maybe that was the point of the First Commandment. To keep humans from ever treading on ground meant for Angels. Could that mean cybernetics were not evil, but divine? That such things were forbidden to mankind for exactly the same reasons as genetic engineering was?

David shook his head. He had to focus on the problem at hand. Rachel would be the one who had to decide what to do about the Angels.

“They’ve summoned me for court martial,” he told Rachel.

She groaned, then rose from the chair. “What the void did you expect to happen, Mac? I told you not to let Waller go! But you had to go and play soldier, like always.”

“I am a soldier, lass.”

She thumped him on the chest. “Yeah. Great. Now they’re going to string you up for it. Go play hero, fine!”

“Bloody void, Rachel! I don’t have a choice.”

She snickered, shaking her head. “Of course you do, Mac. Just don’t go.”

Maybe she could feel his emotions. Sense that wee part of him which had considered doing just that. If so, he hoped she could feel how much of him felt it was wrong. “I am a Sentinel.”

“Blah, blah. Orders, duty, blah, blah.” She stormed away and sat back in the chair. “You’re just like everyone else. Blindly following whatever you’re told to do. But one day, you’re going to have to learn to think for yourself.”

David folded his arms. “You can be a brat sometimes, you know that?”

“I don’t want you to go!” She spread her arms wide, as if daring him to step in and hold her. And what he wouldn’t give to do so—to take her in his arms and never let her go.

But that wasn’t the reality they lived in, much as he wanted it. He stalked closer and knelt in front of her, taking her hand. “I don’t want it either, Rach. But I’ve got to, and you know that.”

“I just got you back …” Her voice was a whisper.

Rather than answer, he tried to project a psionic sensation of warmth to her. The way she rocked back and closed her eyes, she must have felt it. “My heart goes with you. You know that. And I’m going to send Phoebe and Leah with you, too. They’ll be able to help with whatever buggered up shite you find yourself in.”

She snorted. “I’ll bet Leah’s going to love being left here.”

“Course she will, lass. This living ship is a biologist’s dream.”

Rachel shook her head, laughing at some private joke, then leaned in and kissed him. “Come back to me.”

“Aye.”

David rose. He needed to see Leah, and then he’d have to take the Logos to New Rome.

Angels watch over Rachel while he was away.

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

November 14th

I thought I would be lost without David. But the Ark occupies so much of my mind, so much of my time, I am able to push him away. I must remain focused on the task at hand. I do not know how much time I have before someone comes to take this ship away from me. And yet, given even a slight moment alone, he creeps back into my thoughts. And I wonder if I should have tried harder to stop him from leaving.

From the control chair, Rachel’s mind reached into the depths of the Ark. Its databases seemed endless and her mind could only process so much information at once. Every time she thought she got close to her goal it slipped through her fingers. Part of her wondered if the ship itself was testing her—or teasing her—dangling the secret before her then yanking it away when she tried to open the files.

A holographic display swarmed around her in full three-sixty view, almost filling the entire bridge. A map of the known universe. The ship mapped out the entire Virgo Supercluster and beyond, farther than humanity had spread. With no known Conduit lines running outside the Local Group, anything beyond was denied to humanity.

But the Ark knew the way. Hidden paths to leave the thirty or so inhabited galaxies. Was that where their salvation was? Out there in the deep, beyond known space? Was that why she hadn’t found it yet? She brushed her hair from her face, the motion spinning the hologram so fast it made her dizzy. With a sigh of frustration she dismissed the whole display and rose.

It would just take time. All the secrets were here. Everything humanity needed to stand on its own feet, away from Angel doctrine. Finally free.

She left the bridge and wandered the halls. The Ark was massive, twelve kilometers long, and since Knight, Leah, and Phoebe were the only other people on board, it was very quiet. The emptiness seemed to set the others on edge, but not her. She could feel the ship’s heartbeat, feel its mind always at the edge of her own. How could she be lonely with such a constant companion? It was there when she woke and there when she slept. In her dreams it took her to wonders beyond known space.

None of the others were Psychs. They couldn’t feel the ship. David could, when he was aboard, but even he didn’t feel it as deeply. The Ark was her ship. She had made herself the captain when she entered the code and sat in the chair. It was bonded to her.

She found Knight and Phoebe engaged in a wrestling match in the dojo. By the look of it, they’d established rules for winning points. She had removed her Sentinel jacket and wore only an undershirt, and Knight had no shirt at all. They looked like a perfect pair of soldiers—toned, hard bodies, movements like predators. Funny, she supposed he had more in common with the Sentinels than he did with her. He was a warrior, albeit not one who shared their morality or sense of honor.

Phoebe got a hand under his leg and twisted, flinging him to the dojo mat. “You should just admit I belong on top,” she said, her voice broken by heavy panting.

Rachel cleared her throat.

At that, Phoebe sat up. “Yup, yup. Someone else wants to be on top, right now.”

“Knight, I need to see you.”

He rolled to his feet, then stalked over. Like a tiger. Shirtless, covered in sweat, it reminded her of another time they’d spent together, and she felt herself flush. There was no way. She was with David now. He’d be back, and she couldn’t afford a repeat of what had happened with Knight. It was the one time, only.

Of course, that wasn’t what his emotions said. He knew she could feel it, too. His face told it all. His eyes swept over her body, lingering on her hips. She tried to still the tremor that ran through her by spinning on her heel. “Come on.”

It didn’t work. Now she felt him watching her ass, and knowing she knew it.

From the irritation seeping across the dojo, Phoebe knew it, too. “Better luck next time, ninja boy!” Phoebe shouted as they left the room.

“You two seem to be getting close,” Rachel said.

“Not that close.” He fell into step beside her.

“You were half naked and sweaty.”

“Not as much fun as all naked and sweaty. We could …”

“I … can’t. Knight, please.”

He grabbed her and pushed her against the wall. His lips roughly brushed over hers and for a moment, she let him. His arms were so strong against her, holding her, his kiss deep. His emotions ran hot, and like any empath, she risked drowning in the feelings around her. He’d take her right here, against the wall, if she let him. And part of her wanted to.

“Please,” she moaned, pushing him away. “Please, Knight. I’m with Mac.”

He pulled away a few centimeters, still so close she could feel his hot breath, smell his sweat. “Fine,” he said after a moment, stepping back. “What do you want?”

God, that was the question, wasn’t it? She wanted David. She’d been dreaming of the life they could have together for years. Now she’d have the chance … Except his sense of duty had separated them again. And she had her own duty—mankind needed her to offer them the hope of salvation. A chance for unity. Once, she had thought the Ark might grant that, but it wasn’t enough. The Ark was a ship, and people could exploit that. She needed a symbol no one faction could possess.

Knight leaned close to her face again, his eyes boring into hers.

Rachel stammered, trying to push away, but found solid wall behind her. “I …” Focus, Rachel. If she allowed her resolve to weaken, Knight would … She shook her head. “I have a friend in the Seekers of Eden.”

“Who?”

Rachel blinked, trying to clear her mind, then wiggled free from him. She started walking down the hall, knowing Knight would follow. “They’ve been searching for the location of Eden. Really, even in the Days of Glory they were searching, but since the Vanishing they’ve become a bit more public.”

“Never heard of them.”

“The Redeemers consider their work blasphemy, and most people just think they’re—”

“Totally off rotation?” Knight chuckled. “Come on, Rachel. You really believe Eden even existed? That mankind came from some blue-green paradise world?”

“I think it existed. I doubt it was a paradise, but we had to come from somewhere, Knight. And my ship could show us the way back. I know I can find it, I just have to keep digging. These people have been looking for Eden for—”

“Centuries? Millennia? Does that tell you anything?”

“Do you know how annoying it is when you constantly interrupt me?”

He shook his head. “You’re the empath. I don’t sense other’s feelings.” He shrugged. “But, fine, I can agree Eden probably existed. It’s been lost since the Exodus. Maybe it’s gone. Otherwise, the Angels didn’t want us to find it.”

“I don’t care what they wanted!”

Knight quirked an eyebrow and she realized she’d shouted at him.

“Sorry. I’m trying to save us from that kind of thinking, Knight. I need your help.”

Knight sighed, then offered her his fake salute. “I’m here for you.”

She’d known he would be. It was nice to be able to count on some things. “Look, my friend on Ekron has data that might help me find Eden. They’ve been collecting findings for centuries—if I plug their data into the Ark, it should help me narrow down my search. I need you to go and meet with him. I’d go myself, but I …”

“You’re afraid to leave the Ark? Careful, Rachel. You’ve become awfully attached.”

She bit her lip. Had she? No. She was the captain. She had to protect the Ark. Half the holy universe would kill to get its hands on this ship. “His name is Thomas O’Malley. Will you go meet him?”

“Yeah.” He cocked his head. “Ekron? Isn’t that Phoebe’s homeworld?”

Was it? “It’s an ice planet in the Milky Way, so it could be.”

Knight nodded. She couldn’t read his emotions. At least he looked into her eyes. “Rachel, one thing. If the Angels did want to hide Eden from humanity, they must have had a reason. You might want to remember that.” He turned and left.

Rachel shook her head. He still didn’t understand, but it was all right. At least she could trust him.

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

November 16th

The ice planet Ekron lies in the Milky Way galaxy, well within the borders of the Mizraim Empire. While the Angels—and following the Vanishing, Laban Worlds—terraformed a number of planets, many retained their natural temperatures. This created an abundance of worlds rich in crystals and other natural resources, but forever caught in subzero cold. To harvest these resources, the Angels created Cold-worlders, commonly called Icies.

From orbit, Ekron looked like a gray-and-white rock. Knight had a hard time imagining what it was like down there. He’d seen pictures, of course—you didn’t go into a situation without recon. But Gehenna never had snow, and a whole planet covered in ice boggled his mind.

“Time to go, big guy,” Phoebe said.

She’d insisted on coming along—it was her planet, after all. Just as well. He couldn’t fly either of the shuttles David had left them. He’d have figured it out, of course. But now he didn’t need to.

He followed Phoebe down to the hangar, and sat beside her while she started up the engines.

“When was the last time you were home?” he asked.

“Eighteen months, almost. I had leave just before I was assigned to the Logos, so I came to see my parents. They moved back here when I went to the Academy.” She eased the shuttle out of the hangar.

Knight stared out the smart glass at the Ark above them. From outside, it was even more impressive. Massive, jet black, and reflective. Like a mirror into space, so sleek you could almost miss the edges if you weren’t looking right at them. It’d make great camouflage. The Ark had wings, too, like an Angel. A shimmering Angel of the night.

He turned back to the icy planet below. “Your family left this place?” Then why ever come back here? Who would choose a world like this—or Gehenna—when they could live in a place like New Rome? One day, he’d see it. When this was done he’d be rich and maybe live there himself. Clean air, crystal blue waters. Paradise.

“Yup, yup. We moved to a Norm world when I was thirteen. Not too far from here. They thought we’d get better educations—you know, like Norm schools were superior or something. Like we couldn’t get all the information in the universe through the Mazzaroth. But they wanted the best for us.”

Must have been nice. Parents who cared about that kind of thing. “You and your siblings?”

“Yup, yup. Me and my bros—Cold-Worlder kids on a Norm planet. Pale as ice and hot as fire.”

She was hot. When they wrestled, her body felt almost scorching. Amazing what a difference a few extra degrees of body heat made. It made him never want to break contact with her skin. “They gave you Icies a hard time there, huh?”

“Have I mentioned I don’t like that term?”

He shrugged. “You might have.”

“So you should probably stop using it.”

“You should make me.”

“Expect me to.”

“I will.” He found himself smiling, just a little.

“How about you?” she said, at last. “How many Knight bros and sisters?”

He shook his head.

“What? None?” She looked at him askance. “You’re an only child? Really?” She stared into his eyes, and he knew his face must look dark. “Aw, does somebody need a hug?”

“I don’t need a hug.”

“I think you do.”

“I’m a professional assassin raised from birth to be a killer. I don’t need a damn hug!” He didn’t speak for a moment. He had no reason to tell her anything. But she was so … her. And oddly, he found it easy to talk to her. Hadrian and Rachel, the only friends he’d ever had, had been like that. So could she be … he snickered to himself. Making friends all over the holy universe these days, wasn’t he? “My parents died when I was young. No chance for other kids.”

She blew out a long breath. “Oops. Verbal misstep on my part. David always says my mouth will get me into trouble.”

“What have you been doing with it?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Yeah, he would. She did have a tight body and an ass that made him want to grab hold. He might have accidentally done so once or twice while wrestling.

Phoebe clucked her tongue. “One of my brothers was on Hazaroth with me. It’s the Sentinel training world. Very harsh world, like yours. Extreme cold in places, volcanic wastes, jagged mountains. The base is in an orbital habit.” She paused, her voice sounding far away. “It’s a ringed world, you know, ice particles.”

“Must have made you feel at home.”

“Nah. Up there, in the black, it’s a whole other thing. Ever done a spacewalk?”

Knight shook his head. His zero-G experiences on the Logos were the closest he’d ever come to that. The feeling of weightlessness had unsettled him more than he wanted her to know.

“Sentinels have to. All of us, but especially officers. The uniforms are black on black because we walk through darkness to protect the light. We guard humanity against threats without and within—you know. It means I’m basically a hero and you should probably worship at my feet, but there’ll be time for that later.”

He chuckled.

“Aaron—my brother—we were on a spacewalk out by the rings. It’s supposed to be dangerous, teach us fear and respect for the black. Void, I don’t know, I guess it does.”

Knight folded his arms. He didn’t have to be an empath to see she was upset. But he wasn’t good with people. What was he supposed to say?

“Aaron’s suit ruptured. I tried to get to him, past the rings, but he was falling … By the time they got his body it was … I, uh … I kind of hate the black, you know? The vacuum. It’s about the worst way to die you can imagine. Your eyes freeze and your lungs …”

Knight patted her on the shoulder. “Yeah. I know what spacing does to a body.” If Rachel was here, she’d know what to say. None of his training involved this stuff. People died. You just pushed it down.

“You’re probably wondering why I stayed in the Sentinels, huh?”

Well, not really, but he nodded anyway. It seemed to be what she expected.

“Yup, Phoebe’s a glutton for punishment, right? But I owed it to him, to Aaron. We joined together, we promised we were going to make it. I couldn’t exactly walk away.”

“You could have.” Knight had never had the choice to walk away. If she’d kept herself in the Sentinels, it was by her own choice.

“Nah. Maybe you wouldn’t understand.”

“Maybe not. So it was pride, keeping you up in space when you’re scared of it? Explains your attitude, I guess.” The way she always looked everyone right in the eye, like everything was a challenge.

“My attitude? Yeah, fuck you, Knight.”

“Might want to set the autopilot first. We’d need a bit of time.”

She glared at him for a moment, then slapped something on the console. Autopilot Engaged flashed on the screen, and the shuttle swept into a geosynchronous orbit. And she stared at him with a raised eyebrow.

Knight burst out laughing. He couldn’t help it. The girl had some panache, he’d give her that. In some way, she reminded him of Shirin. A thought that sobered him. Shirin had died protecting him. And all he had left of her was a pair of cracked holo glasses inside his coat.

“Sorry about your brother.”

She shrugged and resumed control of the ship. “Some other time, then, blondie. And for your information, life was never easy on a Norm world, not for an Icie. Do you have any idea how sick I was of hearing that every day?”

Right. Whatever. She got picked on as a child. “When I was thirteen I was being trained as Gibborim. Tortured to teach me to withstand pain. Kept awake for days on end to teach me endurance. I guess that’s similar.”

Phoebe clucked her tongue. “Ooookay, then. Time to bring us in for a landing.”

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

Some of these Cold-worlders, such as our own Phoebe Dana, resent the nickname “Icie,” although I’ve met others who embrace it. The Cold-worlders have a body temperature several degrees higher than Norms and other Races. They are extremely resilient against the cold, but do not tolerate heat as well.

Ekron was a world deep in the Mizraim Empire, and it showed. The spaceport was thick with transports, mining vessels, and travelers. Knight doubted tourists came to the frozen planet, but plenty of other people seemed to. Merchants and their security, he supposed.

Sunlight reflected off the ice all around them, shimmering like an endless sea of diamonds while they landed. The sparkle stung his eyes the moment they stepped outside. A freezing wind whipped around them and suddenly his nanomesh long coat didn’t seem sufficient.

Outside, a company of Shiza Security passed by, escorting a hover pad carrying some unmarked cargo. Knight had read about the megacorp. It never hurt to study potential threats. Shiza Security were the most famous mercenaries in the universe. Which meant, knowing Rachel, he’d probably wind up having to kill some of them one day.

Phoebe handed him a parka from a storage locker. “Suit up, big guy. This place can be a bit nippy.”

Knight did as she bade, then followed Phoebe down the path away from the shuttle. It was a long walk toward the city proper, and it gave him plenty of time to take in Ekron City. From a distance, it looked to be formed from ice, though his research said most of the city was actually carved from an opaque crystal native to the planet. Smart glass could be seamlessly fitted into the walls, so you never knew when someone was looking through a window at you. Unnerving.

But beautiful. Light glittered off every peak, every tower—a radiance to challenge heaven itself.

“God, has he been rendered speechless after all?” Phoebe said, and he realized she was staring at him.

“Nice place.” Was that the best he could come up with? Still, nothing better came to mind.

Phoebe laughed, the sound rich and warm in the cold air. “Yeah, my own ball of ice. Come on, I want to see my parents while we’re here. God only knows when I’ll get another chance.”

Knight glowered a bit. Rachel had sent them on a mission. A mission she claimed would affect the fate of the human race. Of course, Rachel always seemed to say that. But still, what the void what he supposed to say to this girl’s parents?

Nevertheless, there was no point in denying her. It was true what she said—they might not be back here for a long time. Given Rachel’s penchant for stirring up everyone she came into contact with, they’d probably be running for their lives again soon.

So he said nothing, just followed her through the too-bright streets, wrapping his parka tighter against a chill that seemed to have no effect on Phoebe. Icies. Huh.

His muscles twitched. Wrapped so tightly in this blanket-jacket, he could hardly fight. Even getting to his throwing knives would be tough. He’d have to shed the parka first. Not a good position. Of course, he had the pulse pistol Phoebe had given him. He could use a firearm, but they weren’t his specialty. So little use for them on Gehenna.

Pity MAGs seemed to work fine in the rest of the universe.

While ice caked most of the city, including the buildings, the main streets and sidewalks had been cleared. They seemed to radiate a faint heat, so he supposed they were kept too warm for ice to form. These people had adapted perfectly to the frozen world.

From the corner of his eye, he kept catching glimpses of someone following them. He couldn’t turn around—it would give them away. Instead, he lingered a half step behind Phoebe, trying to catch their pursuer’s reflection.

All he could make out was a man in a parka, though. Just another Icie on a planet full of them.

“Does Jericho have a presence here?” he asked.

“Not really, why?”

It was possible the man was just heading the same way they were. Easiest way to know for sure would be if he followed them inside a building.

Knight shrugged. “Jericho has been hunting Rachel for weeks. Just keep an eye out.”

“Yup, yup. I’m always on the watch for trouble. I was born to find trouble. I could find trouble on a barren asteroid. And if there wasn’t trouble there, I’d make some.”

Right.

A moment later, Phoebe pointed to one of the innumerable ice towers of Ekron City. “That’s where my family lives. Fortieth floor.” She led the way into a central lobby.

The moment they stepped through the tower door a wave of warmth washed over them and Knight happily shed the damn parka. He glanced outside, but no one followed them in. Maybe it was all in his head. A lifetime on Gehenna had made him paranoid.

Phoebe buzzed the lift, and a moment later it opened. “You’re going to behave when you meet them,” she said, and stepped inside.

Knight followed and the doors shut. “Are you?”

“Yup, yup. Good little girl, that’s me.”

The lift doors opened, revealing a hall painted cool blue. Phoebe led him around a corner, then knocked on one door. A moment later it opened to reveal a middle-aged Icie woman with platinum hair and skin even paler than Phoebe’s.

“Hi, Mom!”

“Phoebe!”

The older woman threw her arms around her daughter and pulled her inside. “Oh, is this your new boyfriend?”

Knight folded his arms. Boyfriend?

“You know me, a guy in every port,” Phoebe said.

Really? Did she have so many lovers? Knight pushed the thought from his mind. None of his business.

“This is Ezekiel Knight,” Phoebe said, waving him inside.

Knight stepped in and nodded to her mother, then to her father who appeared from the other room. “Nice to meet you. You must be proud. Strong genes, I guess. I mean, you two must have good genes. Because Phoebe is obviously very fit … and healthy.”

Her parents stared at him with raised eyebrows. Phoebe shot a glare at him over her shoulder. Wrong thing to say, he supposed.

Phoebe cleared her throat. “And now we’re going to go sit in the living room. Come along, Knight.”

Right. Should he tell them he wouldn’t mind having babies with her? Would that be a compliment? He sighed and followed Phoebe into the living room. Dealing with women was easier without their families involved. Gibborim training didn’t cover that.

The Danas made small talk, then Phoebe’s mother offered him tea. He nodded. “Yeah, thanks.”

A few minutes later she returned, a tray of steaming tea in hand. Knight took his and sipped it. Cinnamon and cardamom, and maybe some other spice he couldn’t identify. It warmed his insides and made him relax, almost as if it were made with liquor.

“You know, I haven’t heard from your brother in a while,” Mrs. Dana said. “Not since … You know Sentinels came here, asking about him. If we knew where he was …”

“I know, Mom.” Phoebe stared at her teacup.

“They said he’s working with the Sons of Cain. Can you believe that? Could it be true?”

Who? The name sounded familiar, but Knight couldn’t place it. Maybe he’d heard it in passing.

Phoebe said nothing, which all but confirmed her mother’s question.

“I guess that answers that,” Knight mumbled, and Phoebe glared at him. Again. Whatever.

“Darling, we need to know,” her father said. “Has he really gone into the Expanse? Has he joined those pirates?”

Pirates? Knight had heard stories about pirates preying on transports, then retreating into the Expanse of Nod. Gehenna lay on the edge of the Expanse, so rumors reached the planet, even if the Shadow Council took no concern of them. Supposedly even Sentinels feared to head into the Expanse. Angels had forbidden travel there long ago.

“I don’t know, maybe,” Phoebe said at last. “They asked me the same questions. I haven’t talked to Ezra in even longer than you.”

“Your brother’s a pirate?” Knight asked.

She shot him a look of rage. And he was getting damn sick of it. He didn’t have to put up with her being so touchy. She wanted to take a few minutes to see her parents, he’d given her that. And now she was acting like she expected something from him. What the void?

“Yeah, okay, that’s fine,” he said. “There’s worse things. Look, we’re here on a mission, Phoebe. We’ve got to find this guy, and we should do it fast. Sticking around this planet is not a good idea.” They were deep in Mizraim space, and sooner or later Sentinels would come for the Ark, whatever David said.

“What the void, Knight! This is a serious matter. My little brother could be out there killing people—”

“The both of us have had to do so plenty of times ourselves. It happens.”

“I am a Sentinel!” She’d risen to her feet. “I have a duty to—”

“Dress it up however you like. The dead don’t care why they’re dead. Tell yourself you’re better than this Ezra if it makes you feel better. Whatever. It’s time to go.”

Phoebe set down her teacup. “Sorry, Mom, Dad.” She turned on Knight, her face screwed up in anger. “I’ve got this annoying buzz in my ear I’ve got to check out.”

Knight grabbed his parka and headed for the door.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

Icies have an almost diametrically opposed Race, the Smolders. Like Smoggers, Smolders have lungs capable of processing harsh, volcanic atmospheres. But moreover, they were engineered to survive extreme heat, and thus have little love for the cold. Since the Vanishing, there has been a subtle, but continuous animosity between the two Races. Interestingly, though, intermarriage between them is not uncommon, and their offspring seem to balance their natures.

According to Rachel, O’Malley worked in the Ekron City Conservatory, a geothermal-powered tower at the center of the city. Phoebe said basically nothing the whole walk there, which was fine by Knight—better than hearing more of her damned ranting.

They took a lift to the roof, and had to walk down a short path to the dome. Up here, a hundred stories in the air, the wind bit to the bone, and his nose burned from even a moment’s exposure. He wrapped his parka tighter around his face and pulled open the door.

“God, you’re not even going to apologize, are you?” Phoebe said from behind him.

So she was finally talking to him again. “For what?”

Phoebe opened her mouth to say something, shook her head, then shoved him aside. She stormed off down the hall, leaving him out in the cold. Knight clucked his tongue.

Damn woman. What the void should he even care what the Sentinel thought? They had nothing in common, anyway.

He followed her inside and a wave of heat washed over him, almost stifling after the freezing cold outside. He stripped out of his parka and laid it by the door, then drew in a lungful of warm air, letting the heat suffuse his body. Humans didn’t belong on such a cold planet. He should have let Phoebe come alone. She could have handled finding another Icie.

He strode down the short hall and into the proper dome. In here, the ground fell away in a funnel, revealing dozens of tiers of vegetation. The dome directed sunlight and heat down on them, and a spray of mist dusted the plants. A circular path led down through the tiers. Story after story of hanging vines, herb gardens, and bushes.

Knight turned around slowly, taking in the maze of greenery. Gehenna had nothing like this—not that he’d ever seen. Most planets got their food from Manna Products, but this place probably produced enough to feed half the city. Tomatoes, olives, berries, roots, and vegetables he didn’t even recognize.

He had read about rain forests in the Mazzaroth, and this place reminded him of that. Plants everywhere and hot moisture filling the air. So odd after the frozen world just outside.

Would New Rome have forests like this? He’d read much of the planet was unspoiled, overgrown with plants. He supposed a forest must look something like this place.

A few questions pointed them toward an Icie working on a lower tier. They had to take a winding path down to reach him.

“Thomas O’Malley?” Phoebe said.

The man looked up from vine-growing grapes. “Yes, that’s me.” His eyes were pale, pale blue, his skin almost albino. Despite it, the man seemed hail and healthy. His spiked hair was dyed green. “You’re a Sentinel.”

“Yup, that’s me. Sentinel errand girl. Escorting assholes around the known universe. Know any assholes, O’Malley? Because apparently that’s my full time work now. It’s a secret mission straight from the top.” She put a finger to her lips. “Shhh.”

Knight shook his head. Yeah, okay. “We’re here on behalf of Rachel Jordan. She says you have something for her.”

“Ah, well … yes.” The Icie fingered something inside his jacket. “I might … I mean, I do. But I think I should give it to her in person. You know, see the ship for myself. Only fair, after all. I’ve worked for so long …”

Knight glanced at Phoebe, who stared at him blankly. Fine. His call. “You want to come up with us?” Why not? He could always kill the man if he caused trouble. “Fine. But first give me the—”

The dome above shattered with a tremendous crash. Giant shards of smart glass tumbled down from above. Knight tackled Phoebe to the ground, knocking her out of the way of one that would have split her in half.

He rolled to his feet in an instant. A dozen Shiza Security personnel descended on cables strung from a hover carrier. They had MAG rifles out a second later, opening fire on anything that moved.

Cold-worlders exploded in a spray of blood all around him. Knight flipped onto the rail surrounding the funnel and shot one Shizan with his pulse pistol. He ran along the rail and jumped into the air, snagging another Shizan around the waist. The man flailed against him. Knight scrambled up the man, landing blows on him as he climbed. A twist broke the man’s neck.

Another Shizan aimed a MAG rifle at him.

Pulse shots from below took out his attacker, and Knight flipped free.

“O’Malley’s dead!” Phoebe shouted.

Knight glanced in her direction. The Icie had been gunned down in the initial barrage.

“Get his data chip!” he shouted at her. He dove through a cluster of tomato vines and came up behind the greenery. More MAG rounds rained down around the Conservatory. Phoebe’s suit would protect her, but not for long. Knight’s nanomesh coat would hold up for even less than that.

He stalked through the vegetation, then leapt out as a Shizan passed. His weight bore the man down, and Knight slipped a knife through a gap between the helmet and the armor’s chest plate.

He rolled back into the plants as MAG rounds tore through the man he’d just killed.

“Knight, retreat!”

Phoebe made a break for the door. More Shizans swarmed after her. Knight leapt from hiding and roared at them, firing wild pulse shots into their midst. A heartbeat later and he was among them. Time slowed for him, and he caught a man’s arm. He twisted and flipped, flinging the Shizan over the rail and down through the funnel.

The man fell, screaming for thirty stories. Knight already had a hand around another Shizan. He turned the man about, bent him over his pulse pistol, and fired at point blank. The man’s weight tore the gun from Knight’s hand as he fell.

Just as well. Knight was better without it.

Another attacker tried to shoot him. Knight jerked to the side, avoiding the rifle’s trajectory, and swept the man’s legs. In the same motion, he brought his own foot down on the fallen man’s head.

He shoved the last Shizan, and made a break for the door. Knight moved to grab his parka. The walls exploded into shrapnel as MAG rounds tore through them. No time for comfort. He ran outside.

Without the heavy clothing, the wind instantly made his limbs numb. His legs seemed to slow, even as he ran. Outside, more Shizans were piling onto the roof.

Phoebe had shot down at least five, but these guys kept coming. Knight ran toward her, but his foot slipped on the ice and he skidded, nearly colliding with the Sentinel.

She grabbed him around the waist, then leapt over the side of the building.

“What the—”

The wind stripped away his words and scorched his throat with cold. Freezing air whipped his hair into his eyes, and all he could do was clutch onto Phoebe as they fell. Even through her Sentinel suit, he could feel her warmth. Her cheek pressed against him was his only defense against the biting cold.

A split second before they hit the ground, their descent slowed. A grav-net in her suit must have caught them. They impacted hard, and she landed in a crouch.

“Run!” she shouted at him.

He tried, but his legs weren’t working right. It was so … damn … cold.

He scurried after her.

More shots crashed into the street behind them. Phoebe darted around a building and kept running.

“Thank you,” Knight said, or tried to, though his teeth chattered.

“Yup, yup. Saving your ass is what I do. You are an ass. You know that, right? I mean, I thought you should know that if you didn’t already.”

What the void? She was going to do this now. He couldn’t even feel his feet, which meant his every step seemed clumsy, weak. He stumbled after her as she headed for the spaceport.

“Right. I’m an ass. Never been called anything that bad in my line of work before.”

“I asked you to behave with my parents!”

He was pretty sure he had behaved.

“Just because you never had any brothers or sisters doesn’t mean you shouldn’t understand those of us who do!”

Because so much good had come from siblings that he could see. Rachel’s brother nearly killed her and Phoebe’s had apparently run off to play pirate. Which actually didn’t sound that bad. “What’s the matter, Sentinel, can’t stand having a criminal in the family?”

“You were raised into the Gibborim … Is that why you’ve got no manners? Social training not high on the priority list for you people? Too busy learning how to kill and annoy people to death? Why the void should I expect a man with no family to understand what one means?”

Knight set his jaw. He didn’t need a family. He’d had Hadrian … the man had been his best friend, his mentor. And Knight had killed him. In the end, you could count on no one but yourself. Except, now he had Rachel. She’d been a true friend to him. She’d come for him when he was in danger.

No brothers to betray him. No sisters to scorn him for the life he’d led. And his only parents had been the Gibborim themselves.

Gideon and Shahana Knight. Those were his real parents’ names. The only other thing he knew about them is that they died and he was taken by the state. If they had lived, maybe he’d have grown up in a home and have understood all of Phoebe’s inane nonsense.

Instead, he was left befuddled, freezing, and losing patience. He didn’t need any brothers or sisters or parents. He was strong, he was a ghost in the night.

And they had other worries. It was no time for one of her tantrums. Shiza Security were mercenaries, which probably meant Jericho had hired them to hunt down the Ark. Of course, it could be anyone—Rachel had certainly made enough enemies.

And now he had to pray another company of Shizans didn’t guard the spaceport.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

I met Thomas about a year before I first came to Gehenna. In him, I found a kindred spirit, albeit one rarely willing to take the risks necessary to truly save humanity. And yet, I could feel his passion to return us to our homeworld. Just one step on the road to breaking free from Angel oppression.

The cerulean forests of Sepharvaim swayed in the morning breeze, rippling like waves far beneath Caleb’s office. He stared out the window, unable to make himself look at Rebekah. She lay naked, sprawled across his expensive rug, breathing heavily. As spent as he was.

God, he was disgusting. At home, Ayelet was probably preparing lunch for their kids. Unaware her husband had betrayed her. Again.

He could fire Rebekah, send her away. It’s what he’d done with the others when he tired of them, each time assuring himself she would be the last. He loved his wife. He’d just made a mistake—only a moment of weakness. A thousand such moments.

It’s what he told himself. Almost every day.

And almost every day he found a new corner of his office to take his nineteen-year-old assistant. Unable to stop himself, he glanced at her. Her fiery orange hair splayed over her face and she gnawed on one lip. Despite himself, lust stirred in him again.

He was drawn to her spread form like the pull of a sun, an orbit he could never break away from. DNA called out to reproduce itself. That was all.

He knelt beside her, clenched his jaw in an effort to keep from taking one of her breasts in his mouth. There she was, ready for him. Just one more time wouldn’t hurt anything. It wouldn’t make any difference.

He was going to hell.

“You came to tell me something,” he managed to say, his body trembling with effort.

Ayelet. Ayelet. Ayelet.

Rebekah rose to sit, and Caleb struggled to keep his eyes on her face. On that damned ring in her nostril that demanded he take her every way he could.

“Mmm,” she said. “I had that report on Mathison you wanted …”

Yes. Yes! Work.

Caleb almost jumped up, scrambling to his pants. Walk it off, Caleb. Just walk it off. He yanked on his pants, and returned to focus on the forest. “Yes, tell me.”

Jonas Mathison was the Chairman of Jericho Corp. He’d been up to something—all the board members undoubtedly were always up to something, most especially Caleb himself. They were all on the same team, technically. But if you stopped planning, seeking, scheming, you’d find yourself left behind. Or dead.

“Mathison has mounted an expedition into the Expanse of Nod. He took a Jericho cruiser. Off the books—I had to do some digging to find out.”

Did she dig for information from others the same way she satisfied him? Did she use her nubile body to get ahead? If so, he could hardly blame her. One had to work with what one had. Of course, it would mean he couldn’t trust her. Yet another reason to let her go. He should have done so already … But it was more than her body that proved useful. She was a damn fine assistant, anticipating his needs and always prepared, ever working to advance his career. Perhaps she knew her fate was tied to his.

Caleb chewed his thumb, considering what she’d said. The Expanse of Nod was massive, unknown, and forbidden to humanity by Angel proclamation. It was also rather near the Pegasus Dwarf, which could mean Gehenna. With the Ark gone, he’d like to think no one would pay attention to that world anymore. Because if they did, if they learned about his cybernetic experiments on the Gibborim, he’d have unfortunate questions to answer.

But sadly, whatever Ms. Jordan had done to the atmosphere had made Gehenna a point of interest for researchers. Laban Worlds was beside itself that she had terraformed the planet in hours. From what Sarah told him, it was all she could do to keep Laban from trying to claim the whole damn world.

In a way, he was probably lucky Jordan’s bodyguard had killed most of the Gibborim. Less chance of anyone finding them out. Still, it was damn inconvenient. If this Knight had remained with the Gibborim, he would have been a major asset. And Sarah had failed to even kill the traitor.

“Do you know what he wants in the Expanse?” he asked.

Rebekah stirred behind him and her clothes rustled as she slipped them on. She knew he was trying to control himself again. She always seemed to know what he wanted. When to tempt him, when to back off. How could he fire such an attentive employee?

“Everyone was pretty tight-lipped, but I managed to pry some information loose,” she said. Oh, he could just imagine her prying technique. “Mathison seems to think there is a lost Angel outpost somewhere in the Expanse.”

“What?” An Angel outpost? Angels had left plenty of relics to humankind, most notably the Shekhinah. Damn computer ran the whole Mizraim Empire. But no one had ever found an Angel outpost or ship, at least not until Jordan turned up the Ark. All humanity had was what was left to it—and a handful of relics hunted down by Angelologists like Jordan. If Mathison found an outpost, if it had tech on par with the Ark … Well, Caleb’s chances at becoming Chairman would evaporate like ionized gas.

“Get me Apollo,” he said, his throat suddenly dry.

He hated dealing with the eccentric scientist, but the man was his expert on lost and forbidden technology. He alone might be able to prepare Caleb for what Mathison might find. Caleb slipped his shirt back on, buttoning it neatly. He could never afford to appear sloppy before Apollo.

Rebekah stepped out. She’d left her panties lying on the rug, he noted. He chewed his thumb, trying not to look at them. Damn her.

A few minutes later Apollo flashed on his Mazzaroth screen. “Speak,” Apollo said, his voice sounding hollow.

“Jonas Mathison has taken a cruiser into the Expanse of Nod. He thinks he can find a lost Angel outpost there. Is it possible?”

Apollo sat in shadows, most of his face hidden, as usual. Now he leaned forward, his dark brown eyes flashing. Caleb’s own eyes were cybernetic implants specially designed by Apollo. Caleb had often wondered whether Apollo had cybernetics of his own. “Anything is possible. I must look into this turn of events.”

“Do you know something about the Expanse?”

Apollo’s face remained expressionless, and the Mazzaroth flashed off.

Well damn.

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

I first met the Seekers while I was at New Rome University. One of them came to consult me on my knowledge of the Days of Glory. I didn’t actually begin working with the group until after I lost my teaching position, though. At that time, they approached me again, all but begging me to share any information I uncovered about the location of Eden. By then, I began to think their quest might actually be possible.

New Rome was without doubt the most beautiful planet in the Mizraim Empire. Less so, perhaps, knowing he was going there for a court martial, but from orbit David could still admire the brilliant blue seas and emerald forests covering much of the land.

Even from space he could see the Pinnacle, a tower stretching above the clouds. It was a massive spire topped by a giant disc. The Pinnacle featured restaurants, bars, massage parlors, and every luxury known to man. He’d taken Rachel there on a date, once. Part of him wished she was here now, but it would put her in danger. He’d had no choice but to leave her behind, to trust she was in good hands with Leah and Phoebe. And Knight.

The enigmatic mercenary worried David. The man was an assassin, and if he had any morals or sense of honor, David hadn’t seen them yet. Except—Knight was loyal to Rachel. Intensely so, it seemed. He hoped it would be enough.

The Tabernacle, a mobile station shaped like a sphere, was currently in orbit above the planet. The Logos slowed as it drew near, the Tabernacle taking over navigation as it pulled them in for docking. Aboard the Tabernacle the Sanhedrin—the twenty-three Imperators who oversaw the Empire—met. Of course, they were agents of the real power behind the Empire, the Shekhinah, a sentient computer left behind by the Angels. It had ruled on their behalf, and when they left, it used the Sentinels to form the Mizraim Empire.

Now, of course, he knew the Angels hadn’t left at all, but frozen themselves within the Ark. A revelation that challenged all he thought he knew. If they had not fled to the depths of space, or beyond to heaven itself, why had they left mankind? Did they plan to return in time? Perhaps they wanted to see how humanity would fare in their absence. Perhaps they were waiting for humans to revive them. If so, was it not their duty to awaken the Angels? Rachel surely would not see it so. She had so convinced herself the Angels were tyrants, she blinded herself to all they had done for mankind.

The docking light flared on the bridge, telling him they had locked into the Tabernacle.

David swallowed. Well, this was what he’d come for. He’d given his word he’d turn himself in for his mutiny, and now here he was. Afraid to step off his ship and face it. Still, best face the future rather than stand trembling before it like a wee lad.

“Lieutenant Blaise, you have command.”

“Sir,” Mahlah said, and saluted him.

He returned the gesture and headed for the airlock. The lift ride felt longer than any in his life. He trod down the hall, trying to keep his pace steady. Confident. Head high. He’d acted within the law, he’d done the right thing. Whatever came, he’d face it with honor.

He buzzed the airlock and it whooshed open. Inside, through the smart glass, he could see four Sentinels, standing at attention. The outer door opened, releasing the seal to the Tabernacle.

“Sir,” one of the Sentinels said. “I’m here to take you into custody.”

“I’m to report to the Sanhedrin,” David said. He supposed he should have expected the guard, but this was a bit much.

“Sir, we are ordered to escort you to the brig until further notice. I must ask you surrender your sidearm.”

Bloody void.

David tapped the holster on his leg and his pulse pistol released. He handed it to the Sentinel, then the four men fell in step around him, escorting him down the hall. His heart beat through his temples. This was not a good start. Waller had been here before him, and these men already saw him as a traitor. If the Sanhedrin were aligned against him as well, his fate would not be a pretty thing.

The Tabernacle was massive, almost ten kilometers across. Lifts shot them from the airlock toward the brig on the lower decks. The lifts here could travel both horizontally and vertically, and, encased in smart glass, it gave him a view of the inner station. At its heart, around a massive central sphere, lay the Sanhedrin chamber. Within that, the Shekhinah itself. The one source that might not be swayed by Waller’s impassioned cries of mutiny, and David’s best shot at impartiality.

A thousand walkways connected the offices, barracks, and facilities of the station. The lift zipped past them all, too fast for him to make out individual faces.

His psionic nerves felt on edge, as if trying to reveal something he was missing. The more he concentrated, the more his head throbbed like a bloody pulse cannon.

When the lift lined up with the brig—a giant opaque sphere—it lowered itself slowly. A descent into hell. The doors swooshed open and the Sentinels escorted him toward a cell.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted movement. It froze the moment he looked at it, but he’d seen the outline in the shadows. Was that a Gog? Here on the Tabernacle? They were one of the Races of Man, engineered by Angels to be part of their secret police, the Gogmagog. The Gog had chameleon-like skin that rendered them nearly invisible when they wanted to be.

Officially, the Gogmagog were dissolved after the Vanishing. The Sentinels didn’t work with them, didn’t trust the spies who always seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at once. And for good reason—the two Races were hated and feared throughout the universe.

Unofficially, he’d heard reports that Gog and Magog still worked together, sometimes serving Redeemers or fringe groups as spies, trackers, or even assassins.

And they were here. He was sure of it. What the void were the Sanhedrin thinking, allowing these creatures onto the Tabernacle?

The lead Sentinel buzzed his cell, and the smart glass opened. David stepped inside and sat down on the mat.

“Did they tell you when the court martial will be?” he asked.

“No sir.”

He nodded. Aye, then. Perhaps they made him wait to intimidate him. Perhaps they were weighing evidence.

Either way, he could do nothing from inside the cell.

Nothing except try to use his psionics. He shut his eyes and reached out with his mind. His main Psych gift was ESP, especially navigating the Conduit. Nevertheless, perhaps he could gain some prescient insight into his situation. He had nothing left to lose.

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

I have yet to decide what to do with the frozen Angels. A small part of me wants to destroy the creatures, but I cannot give in to such spite, or I risk becoming as bad as they were. I always knew the secrets of the Ark could change humanity, but now I know it is alive, with a memory, and I dream of finding Eden. I pray returning mankind to their homeworld will begin to break the chains the Angels placed on us. And so I hope Thomas can help me. The Seekers are a small group, but they are diverse, with wide reach. They’ve collected data on every possible location of Eden based on every record we have. I can only hope such things will narrow my search, making it easier to navigate the Ark’s memories. Without it, I fear I could search for months before finding it.

The shuttle ride back to the Ark had been quiet. Knight didn’t mind quiet, but every few minutes, Phoebe cast an angry glance his way.

He didn’t know what else to say. She hated him, now. And he wasn’t even sure why. He’d thought they were becoming friends. He supposed it would be best if he didn’t mention any of this again. Maybe, after a few sparring matches, things would go back to how they were.

Phoebe docked the shuttle in the hangar, then thrust Thomas’ data chip at Knight. “Take the damn thing. Feel free to plug it into your ass.” She took off the moment she left the shuttle.

Knight sighed. Whatever was going on with the girl was not his problem. He had to worry about Rachel right now.

When he got up there, Rachel had someone on a Mazzaroth channel. He had dark hair and a dark complexion, with the face of a man perhaps in his late thirties.

“I can make you a very rich woman,” the man said. “That was our arrangement, after all. You give me your findings, I pay you. That’s how one does business, Ms. Jordan, is it not?”

Rachel paced around the bridge, glancing at Knight, then turned back to the screen. “It’s not what I expected …”

“We had a deal. You are to turn the Ark over to Quasar Industries immediately.”

At last she paused her pacing and spun on him. “No. I’m not handing this ship over. It’s too big for one company to hold, it’s too important. Sorry, but I can’t trust you to do the right thing with the Ark.”

This must be Galizur on the screen, her QI contact. The man who hired her to find this thing, funded the whole trip, maybe. And now she wasn’t holding up her end of the bargain. Bad business, indeed.

The man on the screen shook his head slowly, his eyes narrowing. “The right thing? Since when did morality enter into our business arrangement, Ms. Jordan? You can’t trust a single company with the Ark? Instead you would have us trust a single person? You presume to appoint yourself sole guardian of this relic. You think you are somehow more qualified, more justified, in holding this ship than the rest of humanity. Your arrogance has run away with you.”

“He’s got a point,” Knight whispered, just loud enough for Rachel to hear.

She shot him a glare before turning back to the screen. So now both women were mad at him. Fine. So be it.

“Sorry,” Rachel said. “I need more time … I can’t just hand it over.”

“Ms. Jordan—”

“Sorry. Mazzaroth off.”

That was going to turn ugly. Knight handed her the data chip, then folded his arms. “Your friend was killed.”

Rachel’s mouth hung open as she took the chip. “Wha … Thomas? How?”

“Shiza Security ambushed us. I think someone must have recognized us in the city and called them in. They could be working for Jericho—”

“For Caleb Gavet!” Rachel slammed her palms against the command chair in a way that made Knight lean back. It was unlike her to give in to emotional outbursts, at least not like that. How close had she been with Thomas? Good friends? Former lover?

She spun on him. “It wasn’t like that!”

“Did you just read my mind?” Holy shit, if she’d graduated from empath to telepath, he was going to have a rough day.

She shook her head. “No. No, I could just feel where your mind went. And it was only the one time, with Thomas.”

“You have a lot of only one times.” She’d had him one time, then shoved him away.

“Knight,” she damn near growled, then shook her head. “Look, I’m sorry. I just lost someone I cared about, all right? Just give me some time to go over this data chip. Please.”

He shrugged. Fine. She wanted to be alone, he’d leave her alone. It was a big damn ship, anyway. Of course, if he was like Phoebe and had those brothers and sisters, maybe he’d know how to comfort Rachel now. Maybe he’d know what to say. Instead, he said nothing and stalked out into the hall.

Leah walked almost straight into him. “Oh, Knight! I was just going to see Rachel.”

“Probably not the best time.”

Leah straightened herself, then stood with her hands behind her back.

“You don’t have to be embarrassed about the webs.”

“What?” She backed away, and he could see her muscles tense. With her deep skin tone, he couldn’t see her flush, but her voice trembled. “No, no. You … You should come down to the med bay, sometime. I’d like to test your reflexes.”

Changing the subject. Fine. “My reflexes are excellent.”

“Yeah, that’s why I want to test them. They’re too excellent, from what David says.”

Knight cocked his head. There was no such thing as too excellent. The better you were, the less chance you had of dying.

“Will you walk with me?” Leah asked.

Knight shrugged. Best do what she asked. He was on a massive ship alone with three women, and two of them were pissed at him. He’d just as soon not go for the full set.

“How do you feel about the Angels, Knight? The ones frozen on this ship.”

God, she was going to start with the small stuff, huh? The truth was, he had no idea how to feel about them. Rachel cast them as a bare step up from the Adversary itself, sometimes, but even on Gehenna, he’d been raised to revere the Angels. Or, not even raised to it—it was just what everyone did. People didn’t even think about it. Angels were … Angels. They were divine.

Except, Rachel seemed to think they were just aliens with delusions of grandeur.

Leah didn’t wait for his answer. “There’s so much I could learn from them, about them, if only Rachel would let me open a tube.”

“And wake one up.” People talked about the Days of Glory like it was the next best thing to heaven. Maybe spending so much time with Rachel was rubbing off on him, but Knight wasn’t sure he wanted to see Angels rule humanity again. He’d had enough of being ruled by anyone.

“This ship is changing her, Knight.”

That, he could agree with. Rachel’s original mission had been to find the Ark and give it back to mankind. She’d said doing so would be enough to rekindle the flame of human ingenuity, of advancement. Except, now she had the Ark, and she wasn’t giving it to anyone. She was too afraid to leave it to even go see her old friend Thomas. It-was-one-time-only-Thomas.

Would she feel that way about Knight, one day?

He shook his head. Rachel had replaced her original mission with one to find Eden. Now that was the catalyst to save the universe. And if they found Eden? Would she be on to the next thing?

“I’ve noticed,” was all he said.

“And …?”

“Rachel is Rachel. I’ll keep an eye on her.”

He left Leah and returned to his room. For hours he lay on his bunk, staring at the black ceiling. Life was easier on his own. No one to disappoint. No reason to care who hated him.

Now, with Phoebe and Rachel and, he supposed Leah, he suddenly had to worry about how other people felt. It was pathetic. Maybe he should have jumped the ship and gone on to New Rome, like he had once planned.

Except Rachel would never stop. And without him, she’d get herself killed. Void, she’d probably get Phoebe killed, too. And the thought of the universe without either of the two women seemed wrong, somehow.

He slept for a time, before his comm woke him. “Knight, come up to the bridge,” Rachel said.

Knight rose and stretched. A quick check of the time told him he’d gotten six hours of sleep. And Rachel was still up on the bridge? She was going to burn herself out. Of course, if you didn’t push your limits, you’d never find them.

He returned to the bridge. Rachel sat in the command chair, and beamed at him the moment he stepped in. “Good, you’re here.” She waved her hand and a hologram appeared in the air around her. “This is the Milky Way galaxy. And this …” She twisted her hand and the view zoomed in on a particular arm of the spiral. “This is where I believe Eden was located. With the data Thomas gave me, I was able to scour the Ark’s memories much more efficiently.”

Eden? She was serious. Knight stepped closer, inspecting the hologram. It was just a glowing green outline, so he couldn’t get a sense of the planet. This one little ball was supposed to be the point of origin of all humanity. God-alone-knew how many people inhabited the universe, some thirty galaxies, and all mankind could trace itself back to this one world. It seemed impossible. Eden was a myth, an idea.

“The Ark’s records name the place Earth, but I think this Earth was Eden,” Rachel said.

Knight’s throat felt dry. Rachel had mentioned Eden, but he thought she was off rotation. If she’d really found it … she really might change the universe. What would people do, if they could see the world of mankind’s origin? Would they flock to it in droves, rushing in by the millions, by the billions?

Or maybe nothing was left. The Codex said the Adversary had left Eden a scorched wasteland, unfit for human life. It said Angels had taken mankind on the Exodus because Eden was lost forever. And maybe finding humanity’s homeworld in ruins would only serve to dishearten people.

And this would give the Redeemers one more reason to kill her. She was setting herself up to make enemies of half the universe, and maybe be worshipped as a messiah by the other half.

But she wouldn’t be dissuaded. Not by anything he or anyone else could ever say. Any argument would only make her more set in her course. All Knight could do was ride it out with her, and try to keep her alive.

“All right, what are we waiting for?”

Rachel rose and began pacing. Time for another lecture. “People have been living in the Milky Way since the Exodus. So why has no one found this planet? Why haven’t ships visited this solar system? The answer is simple. The Conduit routes divert around the star. The Conduit is such a complex maze of near infinite pathways, no one would even notice that it deliberately flows around this system, but it must. It’s the only explanation I can find for how no one ever found the world.”

Hidden in plain sight. Clever. “Can we get there without the Conduit?” Knight asked.

Rachel shook her head. “Even from the nearest system, at 50 PSL it would still take years to reach the star, and going that fast we’d be dilating time around us. No, the Conduit is pretty much the only way to get anywhere in space, Knight. Which means there must be at least one path there. The Angels needed one to arrive for the Exodus, right? We just have to find it.”

Find one path hidden among what she called near infinite pathways. It sounded like that would take years, too. Unless they had a Psych with an amazing intuitive sense.

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

November 18th

My thoughts return often to David. He has gone to New Rome, where we first met. At the time it was paradise to the both of us. We grew up there, though David was born on Calneh, and I met him when he returned for flight school. Those were simpler days, and I was, if naive, at least happy.

For two days David sat in his cell in the Tabernacle’s brig sphere. No one came to see him. It gave him more time to sit and think than was likely good for him. He, a Sentinel, had betrayed his oath and his captain because of what the man was doing to Rachel. He’d like to tell himself he’d have done the same for any Mizraim citizen. But would he?

Aye, he’d have been riled up to find any citizen subjected to Stigmata. Of course, he might not have even looked into it deeply enough to learn about it, were it someone else. Or maybe Leah would have told him regardless.

And now he faced court martial for those actions. His uniform, his suit, stood for more than his rank—it was his identity. His mum had been a Sentinel, and his grandfather, and at least two generations before that. It was his blood.

And because of what he’d done for Rachel, he faced the real possibility of losing it all.

At last and without warning, two Sentinels arrived, their helmets encasing their faces. So he couldn’t even see the men who’d come to get him. Another bad sign. They took him back to the lift, and from there, to the Sanhedrin chamber.

Like the brig, the Sanhedrin chamber was within a massive sphere, this one at the heart of the station. The room was dark, and the Sentinels left him alone to traverse the long walk to the center of the chamber. A podium stood there, waiting for him, lit by a spotlight. Seats for the Imperators ringed it in a semi-circle. Waiting to judge him.

Faint lights lit each of them, enough for him to realize there were eighteen out of twenty-three Imperators here. Considering each Imperator normally ran his or her own galaxy, they had really pulled in a lot of them for this trial. Almost the full Sanhedrin.

He scratched his head, took a deep breath, and stepped up to the podium. “Commander David McGregor, reporting as ordered.” He removed his glove and placed his hand on a palm scanner on the console. It flashed, confirming his identity.

“This court martial is now in session,” one of the Imperators said. Akram Scott, David thought, based on his voice. The Imperator for Andromeda, and the most important member of the Sanhedrin. “Commander, you are charged with mutiny against your captain, Jonathan Waller, on board the Logos, and sedition against the Mizraim state.”

“Sedition?” What the void?

“This court attests that you knowingly disrupted the Sentinels from acquiring advanced technology crucial to the protection of the state.”

They were charging him with keeping the Ark from them. It wasn’t a crime, not one he was aware of, but then, their minds had been made up before he was ever summoned. So now they wanted him to help them get ahold of the Ark. With the wee problem that meant betraying Rachel, too.

“Do you have anything to say in your defense before we begin?”

Whatever he might say, he knew how this would go. They would demand the Ark, and it wasn’t his to give. Aye, maybe the universe would be better if they had it. Rachel couldn’t protect it—not from the Conglomerate—and the Sentinels could use the technology and knowledge to protect the Empire. That was the rub of it all—the Sanhedrin were right. He should hand over the Ark.

But he’d seen Rachel’s face when she felt he’d betrayed her for the Sefer Raziel. He could never see that look on her face again. He couldn’t.

“My actions …” David cleared his throat. “It was brought to my attention Captain Waller was torturing a citizen of Mizraim using the Stigmata, a clear violation of Mizraim law regarding the ethical treatment of prisoners. When confronted, Captain Waller refused to desist this behavior. I thus felt it was my duty to relieve him of command.”

“Yes, Commander, we have the ship’s record and Captain Waller’s testimony on file.” Damn unnerving, the voice in the darkness. It came from Scott’s direction, but since he could barely see the man’s face it was like talking to a ghost. Probably the point. “You do not deny you led a mutiny.”

“No, sir. But my actions were mine alone.” If he couldn’t save himself, at least God let him spare the crew who had helped him. “I ordered those under me to help me relieve Captain Waller based on his actions. I assume sole responsibility for the events that unfolded on the Logos.”

“And you interfered with Captain Waller’s attempt to acquire the Ark of the Angels.”

“My decision was not based on—”

“Answer the question asked, please.”

“Aye, I did. On principle.” A cold sweat built underneath his suit. He’d known this would be bad. They weren’t really interested in what he had to say. Was this all a formality?

“Commander, you have failed to turn over advanced technology to the state, technology crucial to the protection of the Empire. We are willing to show lenience, if you turn over the Ark to us at this time.”

There it was. Betray Rachel, give up her position, lose her trust, and they’d let him walk out of here with a uniform on. Fortunately, it wasn’t a choice he had to make.

“Since being summoned by the Sanhedrin I have had no further contact with the Ark or her captain. I do not know where that ship is.” The honest truth, and they couldn’t hold it against him.

Suddenly the room filled with complete silence. They must have engulfed him in a sound dampening field so they could discuss without him hearing. Even if he could read lips, it was too dark for that. The lack of any sound from beyond the podium left him more on edge, and he caught himself tapping his fingers on the console.

He jerked his hands behind his back and stood at attention. Come what may, he’d followed his conscience and the law. He was on the side of what was right.

Sound returned to the room with a feeling of slight pressure evaporating. “Commander, we give you this chance to contact Rachel Jordan and compel her to come here and turn over the Ark.”

David’s mouth hung open, just a bit, his throat dry. Probably should have seen that coming. If he called her now, they would likely arrest her, but she would be safe. They wouldn’t harm her. Well, assuming she cooperated in telling them how to run the Ark. Which she wouldn’t. So, aye, she might well wind up back in an interrogation chair. He knew her too well. Whatever he said to her, she wouldn’t buy into any good-of-the-state argument. She was too damn proud, too sure her way was the best way for everyone. As if she could know better than the rest of mankind what was good for it.

It was an almost childish arrogance.

But it was Rachel. And he could not be responsible for putting her back in such a chair.

“I cannot, in good conscience, take that action. Ms. Jordan is a Mizraim citizen, working as an Angelologist, who found a relic outside Mizraim territory. She is legally entitled to do with her claim as she wishes.” And he couldn’t ask her to give it up just to save himself.

“Commander, set petty semantics aside. The Ark could make the difference in the inevitable conflict between Mizraim and Asherah. Do you want to be responsible for them getting it first? This is your last chance.”

Aye, last chance. So just say it and be done with it. Say it, and give up the uniform he’d worked so hard for. Say it, and give up his honor, his commission. All he’d worked for gone—to protect all he stood for.

“I cannot.”

“Very well, Commander. This court finds you guilty as charged. For your crimes and refusal to cooperate with the court, you are sentenced to the penal planet Horesh for a term not less than ten years.”

David almost tripped over his own feet. Ten years on Horesh. A lifetime. And likely a death sentence, especially for a former Sentinel.

At that, all the lights around the Imperators went out, and he was left in darkness. Then figures moved forward, but not Sentinels. They were humanoid, but had elongated snouts, sharpened teeth, and narrow, luminescent eyes. Magog.

The Sentinels had enlisted the Gogmagog. The Angel’s secret police were now working for Mizraim. The Sanhedrin had compromised their morals for the sake of expediency, and David feared the Ark might be the reason why.

A pair of Magog grabbed his arms and escorted him out.

CHAPTER SIXTY

November 19th

New Rome’s fame has apparently spread throughout the universe, since even Knight dreamed of visiting there. Of course, the exorbitant prices of housing would have made things difficult for him. He might have raised the money to go, but he would have been hard pressed to find a way to market his particular skill-set there. Maybe none of us are destined for the futures we dreamed of.

Time and space had become a vast, endless book to Rachel. No longer an unknowable mystery, every question in the universe had an answer, if she could only find the right place to look for it. If she only worked hard enough to understand it. But understanding was fleeting. Every answer illuminated two more questions.

A part of her had wondered whether the Angels had made up the Adversary as an excuse to enslave mankind. A part of her believed that, if an alien force of godlike power existed, humanity would have seen it. They would have encountered it again as they spread across the Local Group over the last three thousand years.

At least until she uncovered the recording. This world, once blue and green, now scorched and under fire from a ship in orbit, it had to be Eden—Earth, as the old records in the Ark called it. The Ark had recorded itself and other Angel ships coming in to engage the Adversary.

The images were chaos. Bolts of plasma filled her mind, clouding her vision, as the Ark and the Adversary ship traded fire. The Adversary shot down one Angel ship, but the Ark kept closing in. More Angel ships arrived, and the Adversary retreated into the Conduit.

The Adversary ship was made from the same glossy black organic technology as the Angel ships. The thought made the hairs on her neck stand on end. Was it possible the Adversary existed, but they used the same technology as the Angels? Or could this entire event have been staged by the Angels themselves? What had happened to that ship? Had the Angels hunted it down and destroyed it? If they had, they could still use the looming threat of this external force to cow humanity to their will.

Rachel blinked, her eyes dry. How long had she been staring into space, images from the Ark projected directly into her mind? Her back hurt. She rose, stretching like a cat until a satisfying pop in her spine gave her some relief.

Her stomach growled. She couldn’t even say when the last time she’d eaten was. She’d been delving deeper and deeper into the Ark’s records, trying to find the way back to Eden. Perhaps records was a misnomer. It was the ship’s memories, and like memories, they weren’t stored in a linear or logical fashion. She couldn’t just run a Mazzaroth search and get back a folio of information. She had to delve the memories, much like a telepath would delve a person’s, except the ship didn’t fight her. Perhaps the Angels had known how to properly access and organize the Ark’s database. Perhaps their own psionic abilities were so much greater than hers they could process the non-linear information more easily.

The ship chimed, and one wall of the bridge became a Mazzaroth screen. Incoming call. Akram Scott.

Rachel paused, staring at the screen. Akram Scott … The Mizraim Imperator for the Andromeda Galaxy? Calling her?

“Receive call.”

Scott’s face appeared on screen, weathered and old, probably at least a hundred and twenty. His eyes slowly scanned the bridge, widening a bit before they focused on her. Let him look. Let him drink in the power and majesty, the elegant simplicity of her Ark.

“Rachel Jordan?” the man said at last.

“Yes, Imperator.”

“I see you must still be aboard the famous Ark. That’s good, very good. On authority of Mizraim, you are hereby ordered to deliver the Ark to the Tabernacle above New Rome immediately.”

Well, right down to the point. She was, after all, a citizen of Mizraim. He might claim it was her duty to turn over such technology. Any other citizen would do it. But Rachel? No, never. Except … what would David say? He’d believed it her obligation, too. Still, her duty to humanity came before her duty to any government. Besides, who knew what they would do with such a weapon?

No, she needed the Ark to find Eden. By leading mankind back to their homeworld, she would enable them to rise above themselves. Perhaps even reunite. The power of the Angels didn’t belong in the hands of a single government. Perhaps it belonged in no one’s hands, but it was hers now, and she aimed to keep it. And regardless, if she turned it over, the more religious among the Imperators might take it upon themselves to wake the damned Angels themselves. She didn’t know how long she could keep them secret, but she’d aim to do so as long as possible. If they woke, there would be no ascension of mankind. Humanity would be reunited—by the Angels, to be ushered back in a new Days of Glory.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Imperator, I cannot comply with your request.”

“It is not a request, Ms. Jordan. Commander McGregor has already been sentenced to ten years on a penal world for his failure to follow orders. You do not want to repeat your friend’s mistake.”

Mac? Her stomach felt empty and her knees weak. She struggled to remain still, unwilling to let Scott see her waiver. They had sent Mac to a penal colony? Sentinel penal colonies were not much better than Gehenna had been, back in the Days of Glory. He must have refused them, refused to turn on her despite his supposed duty. God, he’d sacrificed himself, his career, for her?

She caught her lip trembling, and forced it to stillness. Mac.

He’d willingly marched to his court martial for duty. But he had refused them on arrival. Refused them for her sake, and for her sake he’d been damned. All to keep the Ark from them, so she could complete her mission. She wanted to believe he’d done it for the mission, though her heart knew it was just for her. And she owed it to him now to continue. If she gave in to this, his sacrifice meant nothing.

“Imperator,” she said, her throat dry. “I cannot turn over the Ark. This ship does not belong to Mizraim, and you have no claim on it.”

“Think carefully on your decision, Ms. Jordan,” Scott said. “You will be given one day to comply. Turn over the Ark and come home a hero. Fail to do so, and you’ll be considered a traitor to your government and treated accordingly. I await you on the Tabernacle.”

The Mazzaroth flashed off.

Rachel collapsed back into the command chair and let her head fall into her hands.

David had just come back to her and she had thought, maybe, they could finally work things out. She had wanted … everything. And instead, he’d been sent to a penal colony. They had imprisoned him because of his feelings for her. Because he refused to betray her. And instead, she had effectively betrayed him by letting him leave.

She had to find out where he was.

She had to.

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

November 21st

The Sentinels are both the military of the Mizraim Empire, and their police force. Officially, their jurisdiction covers only the Empire, but they have been known to breach that in pursuit of criminals. Captured criminals are typically imprisoned on various penitentiary worlds scattered throughout the Local Group. While some are run as actual prisons, others, like Horesh, are more penal colonies, where prisoners Mizraim has no further use for are sent to die.

In the two days since Scott’s call, Rachel had made a point of not staying in any one system for long, but she was no expert pilot of the Conduit.

She hadn’t had much time to investigate, but a few discrete calls whenever they stopped—to the few friends she had left—had revealed David was sent to Horesh.

A desert world.

A place for criminals to kill each other away from civilization.

A deathtrap for a Sentinel.

David had been sent to die for refusing to betray her.

And he was there because of her. Because he’d committed treason to save her and then refused a direct order so he could protect her. She’d let him go to his doom. She’d allowed David—the man she’d once thought to spend her life with—to walk knowingly into the void.

Perhaps it wasn’t the Conduit that had so affected her. Perhaps it was guilt. Fear. Pain.

An empath knew all those emotions too well. She felt them from those around her every day. She drank in the worry of decisions that weren’t her own and risked succumbing to regrets of others. Sometimes, she thought she could drown in the weight of others’ emotions. How much worse when they came from her own conscience. In a crusade to better humanity she may have damned the man she loved the best.

It was a bitter reality she could not accept. And when you can’t accept reality, your only option was to change it.

But she was in no shape to do so at the moment. The running had worn her down, and her psionic nerves were frayed.

Even the mundane emotions Knight and Phoebe emitted when they entered the bridge tore at her mind. They became a torrent of feeling until she lost herself in it, unsure what part of the mess of anxiety, sexual tension, and irritation was her own and what part came from the other two.

“You should sleep,” Knight said.

Rachel rubbed her face. She had slept, in the chair, for … well, she didn’t know how long. But she’d slept a little. The Ark spoke to her in her dreams. On waking, though, she couldn’t quite remember any of it. It left her with a vague sense of secret knowledge, a memory of a dream at the edge of her mind. Damn unnerving.

“Maybe I should get Leah up here,” he said a moment later. “She should have a look at you.”

“I appreciate the concern, but I’m fine.”

“Nice to see he cares about someone,” Phoebe mumbled.

Something tugged at her mind, and she had to focus, bringing up the holographic display. A Sentinel ship had just jumped out of the Conduit Gate. And another. And another. The Logos and two other battleships. Imperator Scott wasn’t messing around.

How had they found her so quickly?

Probably a warrant had flashed the Ark profile across the Mazzaroth, warning every civilized system in the Empire to report her.

Rachel shook her head to clear her mind. Focus. “Brace yourselves.”

“What?” Phoebe asked.

Rachel reached into the hologram to display the situation on the screen. She steered the Ark away, swinging a trajectory around the nearest planet.

The Sentinel warships would catch them in seconds.

“Those are drones they’re launching,” Phoebe said.

Fantastic.

Rachel reached into the plasma bank and began flicking bolts at the drones. One by one they dropped off the hologram, but more appeared, faster than she could shoot them down.

She was going to need to find out how to let others operate the weapons. Flying the ship by herself and shooting was complex.

A beam shot from the Logos and struck the Ark’s hull. The ship vibrated from the impact, but it was nothing compared to the sudden screech of pain that wracked her mind. Rachel grabbed her head and fell from the chair, moaning. Blinding throbbing filled her. The Ark’s wail of pain tore her mind apart. She vomited.

“Angels above!” Knight shouted. “Rachel!”

“That was an ion cannon,” Phoebe said. Her voice sounded distorted, far away. “Are they trying to destroy us?”

“Rachel!” Knight was shaking her, but all she could do was groan. “Get up! Get back in the chair!” He grabbed her face and pulled her into a sitting position, staring right into her eyes. “Pain is in the mind, Rachel. It’s not real. It’s just a message telling you about danger. Pain is in the mind.”

Hundreds of MAG rounds impacted the hull, like tiny needles on her skin. Those ships were closing fast. She could feel them, like predators stalking her.

“Doesn’t this thing have kinetic shields?” Phoebe demanded.

“Look at me, Rachel,” Knight said. “It’s in your head. You can fight through this.”

He was right. This was all just signals in her brain. Rachel gulped, then spit out the taste of bile. She wiped her mouth and Knight helped her back into the chair.

“They’ve launched shuttles,” Phoebe said. “They’re going to try to board us.”

Rachel reached back into the hologram. She could shoot down the shuttles. Kill the Sentinels. Men and women like David, just doing their duty. His brothers-in-arms. So how could she kill them?

Instead she gunned the engine as hard as she could, slingshotting around the planet. No shuttle would catch them once they reached full speed.

She reached her mind out to the Ark. Help me. Speak to me. And then she knew. It came to her like an idea almost her own. She drove the Ark straight back toward the battleships. Toward the Conduit Gate.

They drew nearer. The Logos launched missiles at them.

She reached into the plasma banks and flicked her fingers outward. Hundreds of bolts of plasma flew at the oncoming battleships. Some bolts hit missiles and detonated them. Others struck the ships themselves, ravaging their kinetic shields. The Sentinels faltered under the barrage.

Keep going. Rachel pushed the engines as hard as she could, flying right past the Sentinels. Straight for the Gate.

“We’ll lose them in the Conduit.”

“Lose them?” Phoebe said. “How the void are you going to …”

Rachel dove into the Conduit. Shimmering color erupted all around the ship. She jerked into one passage and then the next, flying as erratically as she could.

“Void!” Phoebe shouted. “Are you off rotation?”

“What?” Knight said. “What’s wrong?”

“She’s going to get us lost in here flying like that!”

Rachel’s mouth quirked up in a smile. Even an unwavering Sentinel could sweat, huh? “We have no choice. I don’t want to have to fight them.”

Nor was she even sure the Ark could take on three Sentinel warships. One for certain, maybe two. But without knowing how to properly operate the ship yet … Besides. She couldn’t kill hundreds of Sentinels. Not unless she had no choice.

Phoebe groaned. “The Second Commandment says ‘Mankind Shall Adhere to the Bounds of the Conduit’.”

“I know what it says!” Damn Commandments. Damn Codex. She jerked the ship again, doubling back through another passageway. She could feel the way. She could reach out with her mind. She wasn’t as powerful a Psych as David, but she could find the way. She knew she could.

“And if you breach the wall—”

The Ark shrieked as she turned too sharply and scraped the Conduit wall. The passageways were coming so fast. She couldn’t think. Only react.

Only keep flying.

David’s brethren were after her, after her ship. And he was alone, withering on Horesh. No course was clear before her. No options.

And in the back of her mind, the Ark urged her to destroy all foes.

She shuddered at how easy that would be.

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

By creating harsh worlds such as Horesh, the Sentinels need to expend little effort watching prisoners, because the prisoner’s fate is of no concern. They need no guards. Only the worst criminals find such fates. This, of course, means you have an inhospitable planet filled with murders, traitors, and rapists. In theory, the threat of such a world hangs over the head of criminals, warning them against serious transgressions. In practice, I have some doubts about its efficacy.

It was late in the afternoon when Rebekah came into Caleb’s office, and he had just finished an excellent cup of coffee. Manna Products’ finest blend, Tubalian Mix, imported from Tubal in the Draco Dwarf galaxy. Rich, exotic, and satisfying. Like Rebekah.

He focused his cybernetic eyes on her body, drinking in every detail of her. The texture of her dyed hair, the coloration of her irises, her perfectly trimmed nails.

“I have a report from the Expanse,” she said, trying to hand him a tablet.

He waved it away. “Later.” His eyes could strip away layers of clothing, scanning beneath them. Of course, it wasn’t as much fun as seeing the real flesh.

“I think you’re going to want to hear this, Caleb.”

He sighed. She knew him well, and if she said it was important, he trusted her. “Read it to me.”

“A report from last night indicates the Cherub was attacked and destroyed by the Sons of Cain in the Expanse of Nod. No survivors are expected. The Sons of Cain set debris from the Cherub adrift near Gehenna, supposedly as a warning to stay clear of their domain.”

Caleb sat very still in his chair. The Cherub was Mathison’s ship. The Chairman of Jericho Corp was dead. Murdered by the Sons of Cain. The pirate band had long ago claimed the Expanse as a refuge from Sentinel patrols. Caleb had never heard of them being territorial over it. If they were trying to make a point, they had certainly made it.

Of course, this came days after he’d told Apollo of Mathison’s secret mission to locate an Angel outpost. It left two possibilities. Either the Sons of Cain occupied the outpost and thus Mathison ran afoul of them, or Apollo had leaked word to the pirates about the Cherub’s incursion. If the latter … Caleb chewed his thumb. With Mathison dead, the board would need a new Chairman.

“Mazzaroth on,” he said, proud of how steady his voice sounded. “Message the entire board. I’m calling an emergency session in two hours.” He switched the Mazzaroth off. “Did you do what I asked with Lucius?”

Rebekah twitched, shifting, then chewed on her lip, before nodding at last.

“Good girl.” He hadn’t loved the idea of sharing her with another man, but everything had its place. And she’d done as she was told. “Show him the video, dear, every glorious detail.” A sick part of Caleb almost wanted to watch the video he’d told her make, but he expected seeing her with another man wouldn’t turn out to be that erotic. “Show him, and make sure he knows his wife will see it following the meeting, unless he’s cooperative.”

Joseph Lucius was probably his greatest threat on the board, with Mathison gone. Likely the board would have been split between them, maybe even sided with Lucius. Caleb had brought Jericho nice advancements through Apollo, but they weren’t too thrilled he’d lost control of the Ark. Not that any of them could have done any better under the circumstances. No one could have predicted how intractable—and damn hard to kill—Rachel Jordan and her bodyguard would prove.

Rebekah sighed, then turned to leave. Oddly reluctant, given the video was the whole purpose he’d sent her to Lucius. A man after his own heart, unable to resist such a succulent and willing offer.

Caleb rose and smiled. He called his wife to tell her he’d be late for dinner. “Give the kids a kiss from me,” he said before cutting the line.

His office had an armoire filled with fine suits for just such occasions. He picked out a sleek black suit with red trim. Best to look the part.

Before he knew it, it was time for the board meeting. He walked in head held high, but trying not to smile. Mathison was dead, after all. Not really the time for cheer.

The rest of the board already sat around the table in the meeting room. The entire top floor of Jericho Tower on Sepharvaim served as the board room. Massive, open, and inspiring. A three-sixty circle of smart glass composed the wall around them. Even the lift rose from the floor so, other than structural supports, the view was almost entirely unmarred. Even better than his office a few floors down.

Caleb moved toward his seat, then paused at the head of the table. Mathison’s chair.

“Some of you have undoubtedly heard by now that Jonas Mathison was killed in the Expanse of Nod. God only knows what he was doing out there. We probably never will. What we do know is this company is in crisis. We must elect a new leader, and quickly, before any of our competitors take advantage of the situation.”

Of course, they all knew he was talking about Quasar Industries. QI would use any opportunity to one-up Jericho, and, if he knew them, would likely plan a new product launch as soon as they heard the news. If they hadn’t already. For that matter, he’d almost suspect them of involvement in the incident, except he couldn’t see how they would have found out about the Cherub.

He turned his gaze on Lucius, who was staring down at the table. Many of the others looked to him, as well. Lucius squirmed under the scrutiny, then cleared his throat. “Well, it seems to me the course is clear. Based on his knowledge of the Gehenna incident, and the importance of the Ark, I feel Caleb Gavet would make the natural choice to replace Mathison.”

Ah, Rebekah. She was such a beautiful aid, in more ways than one. He’d have to give her a raise. Maybe buy her a nice outfit, or something.

He kept his face impassive, not bothering to look shocked. Instead he nodded. One by one the board members cast their votes, and though a couple of others garnered a vote or two, with Lucius behind him, there was no doubt of the outcome.

Caleb was now the new Chairman of Jericho Corp.

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE

And David, as a former Sentinel, probably sent some of those criminals to that planet himself. I fear for his safety. While he can certainly take care of himself, such an environment will destroy him, sooner or later. And I cannot allow that. I will not lose David.

The shuttle set down in the wilderness, though little on Horesh passed for civilization. They had taken David’s uniform and left him with nothing but a pair of gray pants and a tan tunic.

One of the Sentinels tossed him a scarf. “You’ll live longer.”

David wrapped the scarf around his face, covering his mouth and nose. The shuttle door opened, revealing a cracked, dry desert. A harsh wind blew dust and debris around the shuttle, and David glanced back at the Sentinel once. In theory, a criminal could complete his or her sentence and petition for release. In practice, few ever lived that long.

The Sentinel pointed to the west. “There’s a settlement out there.”

David nodded and headed out. Maybe this was justice. He had sent people to this hellhole for violating the law—and he’d called it justice.

But Rachel was safe, and that was all that mattered now.

Sand and grit stung his forehead the moment he stepped into the wind. By the time he’d taken a few steps the shuttle had lifted off again. He had to shield his face with his arm against the extra grit it kicked up.

He watched it vanish into the atmosphere. The sun here was merciless, he knew. He’d need shelter and water, and soon. Sentinels occasionally dropped food deposits, but they knew most inmates had to fight each other for it. It was part of the punishment. And now David would have to fight for food—he might have to kill, even, or risk becoming too weak to do so later.

He trod off toward the settlement. For over an hour he walked, the sun baking the top of his head. If that Sentinel had really cared, he’d have given him a bloody hat. He supposed he should be grateful for the scarf, little as it was. It did keep the dust out of his nose. His Smogger lungs could filter toxins, but grit would still clog his sinuses.

The settlement was carved from the rock face, a series of tunnels and rooms without doors. It was a maze that gave prisoners a chance to hide from one another and more than enough room to find shelter from the sun, although not much else. Dozens of these rock towns littered this planet.

More importantly, there would be a well nearby.

The moment he stepped into the structure people were watching him. An Anakim folded his arms over his chest, as if to block the way. The man had to be almost two and half meters tall, and built like a solid wall. David tried to step around the man, but the giant grabbed his shoulder.

One chance to prove himself. He supposed he should be grateful to the giant for giving it to him.

He snatched the Anakim’s hand and twisted, breaking his fingers. He pulled the giant’s arm behind his back, and the man shrieked in pain. David landed a tight blow on his kidney and dropped him. His attacker collapsed to the ground.

As soon as he looked up, four other men had surrounded him. Apparently they had missed his point. They hesitated, but not for long.

One swung at him. David caught his arm and jerked it out of the socket. He swept another’s feet out, then slammed his foot on the man’s chest, cracking ribs. He flung the man he held at another attacker, and rounded on the last. David stepped in, and when the man tried to swing, kneed him in the stomach. His foe fell.

David took in the remaining men with a glance, shook his head, and kept walking.

Behind him he heard whispers of “Sentinel.” There was just no way to disguise Merkabah’s brutal efficiency. Not without failing to use the style to full advantage. And he needed every advantage here.

In the chambers beyond he found a cluster of Emites. It was odd to see the servile Race sentenced to a prison world. They had enhanced strength, making them excellent for hard labor. Angels had created them as workers, but with the modifications making them naturally non-aggressive, criminal Emites were rare. This lot had likely been driven toward criminal behavior by someone else, and gotten an unsympathetic judge.

Not that there was anything David could do for them, either. They watched him with hooded eyes as he passed. Emites had broad shoulders, sloping brows, and no hair, making them recognizable. Outright slavery was illegal, but since the Race was literally bred to serve, few objected to relatively small pay.

He passed others on his way to find the well. Probably all the Races of Man were represented on this planet, but the Icies and Amphies fared the worst. The Icies couldn’t take the heat of the desert, and the Amphies … even a short term here would likely kill one. Some judges took that into account. Some didn’t.

An Icie lay on his stomach, his skin peeling away. Dehydrated, by the look of him, and not long for this life. David started to kneel beside the man, but he could do nothing for him. Could he diminish the heat of the sun? Offer water when he had none?

He had to find the bloody well, or he’d be no better off in a few more hours.

A tunnel led deeper into the structure. A steady flow of people came in and out, so that must be the place. Some of those he passed looked right in his eyes, daring a silent challenge. Most, though, kept their eyes down, trying not to attract attention. The strong survived here, and the rest got by if they remained unnoticed.

Around the bend, a wide room opened up, where people had clustered around a well perhaps five or six meters in diameter. David rushed toward it, then fell to his knees and cupped water in his hands. Tepid, and probably not the cleanest, but it was all that would keep him alive. He sipped it gingerly, aware of others in the room watching him. The newcomer. Word would spread soon about those who had challenged him. With luck, he wouldn’t have to fight to prove himself often.

Without luck, someone would smash his head in while he slept.

Against the wall, some prisoners were looting the body of a recently dead boy, a lad no more than seventeen. They took his boots and his shirt, leaving the body alone, naked and broken.

David rose and walked toward the lad’s corpse.

How many people had he sent to this place? How many of them had died because of it?

The Sentinels used Horesh and a few worlds like it to discourage criminals. God only knew if that worked. But for the first time, David began to wonder if the price was too high, even if it did.

He scooped some water in his hands and carried it back toward the dying Icie as best he was able. By the time he got there, most of the water had dribbled down through his fingers. He spread the moisture over the man’s lips.

The Icie was too far gone, too delirious to know what was going on. David sighed. “All right, lad, let’s go.” He lifted the man, slinging the Icie’s arms over his shoulders, and carried him on his back.

He couldn’t absolve himself of all his sins, but he could get this man to water.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

November 25th

I did not want to make an enemy of Mizraim. I am a citizen of the Empire, and I had no wish to betray it. But I have a greater purpose, a higher calling, and I cannot sacrifice that. I will not. Nevertheless, the thought of turning on my own people, of being named a traitor, makes me ill. They would likely throw me in such a world as Horesh for these crimes. A place where I would undoubtedly be murdered or worse within a day or so of arrival. And a place I can never leave David.

Time had blurred around Rachel. Days of hiding in the Conduit had bled her mind dry. Too much flying, too many pathways to choose. When the Ark jumped out the Conduit Gate, she slipped from the command chair.

“Rachel!” Knight shouted.

He was by her side in an instant, lifting her up. Her vision went dark, and she awoke on a cot, with Leah hovering over her.

“Guess I don’t need to say you’re pushing yourself too hard.” Leah ran a scanner over Rachel’s face. “Yeah.”

Rachel started to speak, then Leah pressed something to her temple. She went out again almost immediately.

She woke later, in her own room. Despite the darkness, she felt someone else there. Her empathic sense was fried. She couldn’t tell who it was.

“You should sleep.” Knight. Of course.

“You shouldn’t be in my room.”

A wave of disappointment hit her before he closed off his emotions. She never heard him move, but the door opened. And then she was alone. Alone in darkness.

Like David. One more victim of her crusade. Knight had once asked her how many people had died because of her. Now, she’d have to add Thomas’ name to that list. He was a good man who deserved better. He’d dreamed of seeing Eden, and now he never would.

The best she could do was try to find it for him.

But before that, before anything, there was David. She could never let him become another of her victims. Never.

She felt sleep taking her, and she let it. The Ark sung to her in her dreams.

She rose some hours later and sought out Knight. He was in the dojo, as she’d suspected. Sweat streamed off him, like he’d been going through the motions for hours. Maybe he’d been here since she sent him away. Knight was even more of a tangled mess than she was, but she couldn’t make him her problem right now. Even if the warmth he felt for her was almost intoxicating … Even if …

She hugged herself, trying to still her thoughts. “Knight.”

He continued moving through forms. It looked like a blend of Merkabah and whatever style—or styles—Knight had learned on Gehenna. “You shouldn’t be in this room.”

She sighed. Maybe she deserved that. She’d thrown him out of her bedroom for fear of leading him on. For fear of what she might let herself do with him. But she had hurt him in doing so. She wished she had a way to make it up to him, but she had neither the means nor the time. She sighed. “We have to go after David.”

Knight just continued his training. His movements varied from slow and determined to so fast her eyes couldn’t track them. It was repetition with slight variation. Muscle memory with built in diversity. That was how Knight fought, wasn’t it? Never repeat the same tactics and your foe never knows what to expect.

“He’s been imprisoned because of me, Knight. I can’t allow that.” Damn it, would he just speak to her? Did she owe him more? Maybe she should have let him down more firmly, sooner. She had chosen David. But part of her still almost wanted Knight. She liked to tell herself it was normal to lust after someone like him. He was a predator, and he wanted her. She knew he did and, if she wasn’t careful, she could easily get drunk on his desire.

Fine. She stepped closer to him, so close he could have hit her with his motions. Instead his fist snapped into place centimeters from her face. She jerked despite herself, letting out a yip.

“Please. Help me.” Her heart was pounding a light year a minute.

He paused, dropping his hands and standing right in her face. “That won’t be easy. Sentinels aren’t going to let us just walk in there and take him.”

“We have the Ark.”

“That only matters if you’re willing to use it.”

If she was willing to kill with it, he meant. Was she?

Knight grabbed her arms and squeezed, pulling her to stare right in his face. “The best way to defeat a foe is to destroy them before they know what happened. Are you going to do that? Or are you going to fly us there and then refuse to shoot down the enemy again?”

“Those people are not—”

“It doesn’t matter who they are. They are going to stop us from saving David. Do you want him back badly enough to kill for it? You killed people on Gehenna to protect yourself, to accomplish your mission to find this damn ship. Do you care about him as much?”

Yes. She nodded. She’d do whatever it took.

Knight released her with a grunt and shut his eyes. “Then I’ll help you.”

“Thanks, Knight.” She’d known he would. And it was time to get this over with. “Get cleaned up and meet me on the bridge in an hour.”

She headed up herself and jumped back into the Conduit, piloting toward Horesh, a planet in the Andromeda I Satellite galaxy. A little hellhole she was about to set ablaze.

Her mind merged with the Ark. And it knew. It knew she wanted to go to war, and it showed her how. The ship had seven ion cannons, more than even a Sentinel warship.

Knight, Phoebe, and Leah all joined her on the bridge.

“Are you ready?” Rachel asked them.

“We have to save him,” Leah said.

Phoebe shifted and Rachel felt the Cold-worlder’s emotions roiling. “Yup, yup. Save the day, commit treason. All in a day’s work.”

She glanced at Knight. He was wearing his long coat buttoned again, as he had on Gehenna, and he was armed with throwing knives on his thighs. He just nodded.

Good.

The Gate was coming. She jumped through it back to normal space.

A trio of Sentinel destroyers—the lightest of their full ships—moved in on the Ark almost immediately.

But Rachel had already made her decision. She unleashed all seven ion cannons, targeting the Sentinel ships. Maybe she could disable them without destroying them. Maybe she couldn’t.

But she was going to get David back.

The Sentinels drew closer. And she opened fire.

An ion stream tore through a Sentinel destroyer, carving it in half like a roast. Some lucky few might have made it to escape pods before the Singularity Drive lost containment. Rachel wished she could do something for them. But she’d already set her course.

Another plasma blast tore through the shields of the next destroyer.

“Come on,” she said through clenched teeth. “Retreat.”

“They won’t,” Phoebe said.

She glanced at the Sentinel. “They have to know they can’t win.”

“They know.”

Well, shit. She launched an ion stream at the third destroyer. Her plasma bolts blasted away the missiles and drones the Sentinels had launched to counterattack. The ships were powerful, but no match for the Ark. Not when Rachel was determined to push forward.

“What is that?” Knight asked, indicating something on the holo display.

Back at the Conduit gate three more ships had arrived. But not Sentinel ships by that profile. She turned a scanner on the newcomers, then redirected her attention to the destroyers.

MAG rounds pelted the Ark’s hull, but now that she knew how to activate kinetic shields they felt like nothing more than bee stings to a bear. Annoyances to be swatted out of the sky.

The screen flashed with an incoming transmission. Galizur Blake.

That was his ship, the Quasar Industries flagship Megiddo, backed by a pair of QI cruisers. Likely no more threat than the Sentinel destroyers.

“Receive call.”

Galizur’s face appeared on the screen. “Ms. Jordan.”

She nodded. “Welcome to Horesh. I’m afraid I’m a little busy to receive you right now.” To emphasize her point she flicked her hand through the hologram, sending a stream of plasma to destroy another wave of Sentinel drones.

“I can see that. However, you uncovered the Ark using my funding and research. It is QI property, therefore, and you must turn it over to us immediately.”

“Yeah, okay. That’s going to happen.” She directed an ion cannon to fire a warning shot off the Megiddo’s bow.

Knight snickered, and Rachel tried not to grin herself.

Galizur’s face faltered for a brief moment, then returned to impassiveness. “You think this a laughing matter, Ms. Jordan? You have no rightful claim to this piece of technology. You uncovered it on our behalf, and by withholding it now, you are, in effect, in possession of stolen goods. Moreover, you claim to want to benefit humanity, while keeping such a ship completely to yourself. Your hypocrisy and pride have gotten the better of you. Surrender the Ark now, and all will be forgiven.”

Who the void did he think he was? She had found the Sefer. She had found the Ark. She had risked her life for this. Except, she’d found both because of him. And she had intended to turn everything over to QI. But somehow, events on Gehenna had made her even more sure that no megacorp could be trusted with such technology, any more than any government could. Besides, she needed the Ark to save David and find Eden.

And she would never let either one go. They needed her.

Did that make her a criminal? Perhaps. Maybe Galizur did have a better claim to the Ark than she did. If so, then her actions could be construed as self-righteousness, as arrogance. But she … She had to do these things.

“Have you ever just known you were meant for something?” she said. “Meant to do something greater?”

“Indeed,” Galizur said. “You were meant to join us, as we agreed. You could go far in this company, Ms. Jordan.”

And if she joined QI, maybe she could even ensure all humanity benefited from the technology. But could she give up the Ark? It was there, in her mind, calling to her. Waiting to show her the way back to Eden. Waiting to let her reunite humanity and break the chains of theocracy that had bound them for more than three thousand years.

“It’s tempting …”

“Wait, you’re shitting me,” Phoebe said. “You refused to turn this ship over to the Sentinels, your own government, but now you’re considering letting QI have it? Get a little dark energy stuck between your ears, girl?”

Rachel ignored her. “The truth is, I do feel a higher calling, Galizur. There is something I’m meant to do for mankind, and I have to do it. With the Ark. I’m going to find Eden.”

Galizur leaned forward, shaking his head. “I warn you, Ms. Jordan. If you take the Ark from here, I will inform the entire Conglomerate of your culpability in these events. You will have every megacorp in the universe after you. Including the Redeemers. I believe you are well acquainted with them.”

A chill ran down her spine. She knew the Redeemers all too well. Half a lifetime under their edicts had almost crushed her soul. Knight had spared her brother’s life, but Jeremiah would likely still want her back, and her father would surely want her captured. All she needed was QI giving the Redeemers permission, or even a request, to bring her down. There would be nowhere safe in this universe. Not from the entire Conglomerate and Mizraim.

Except, perhaps for Eden itself—lost and unknown to the rest of mankind.

If she gave in now, worked with QI, maybe she could still accomplish her goals. Or maybe not. Her mission was too important to risk Galizur interfering if she worked for him. As was David. She was going to save him.

“One last chance, Ms. Jordan,” Galizur said.

Rachel reached into the hologram and flicked a plasma bolt at the Megiddo. The blast impacted the QI ship’s shields, washing over the hull. The screen went dead.

The QI ships neither retreated nor advanced.

Rachel turned her attention to the last Sentinel destroyer, still lobbing MAG rounds at her. “Sons of bitches just won’t learn!” With a wave of her hand she sent an ion stream pounding right through the ship. It ruptured, then imploded.

“Rachel …” Leah said.

The Sentinel destroyer was collapsing into nothingness, a cloud of debris and plasma explosions, vanishing into itself. The singularity was consuming it and would eventually swallow itself. And everyone that had lived and worked aboard it.

She had just killed them all with a wave of her hand. A simple gesture had … ended all those lives. Men and women with families, dreams … Futures cut short. And she had done it as if on a whim. Rachel suddenly felt dizzy. She was no better than the Redeemers, destroying people. “How …” Her voice wouldn’t work. “How many people on a …”

“A standard destroyer has a crew of 149 Sentinels,” Phoebe said. “Sometimes they carry extra troops for deployment.”

Holy shit. How many people had she killed today? Most of those aboard three destroyers, for certain. And she was doing this for the betterment of mankind. Mass murder of men and women dedicated to protecting the human race.

She felt sick.

“If we’re going to do this, we need to do it now,” Knight said. “But I can’t fly the shuttle myself.”

“Phoebe …” Rachel began.

“That planet is pretty hard on Cold-worlders. I can do it, but God knows how long it will take to find David.”

Sending Phoebe down there would put more lives in jeopardy. Rachel shook her head. No more. “I’ll fly it myself. But I need you to stay here and keep QI at bay. Come over to the console. It’s time you learned to operate the weapons.”

There were few people she could trust to touch the Ark, but she got the feeling Phoebe was one of them. And she had no choice—she had to get David. If she got him back, all of this would mean something.

All of this would be worth … all she’d done. She prayed it would.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

It is so easy to get caught up in a course and have it carry you along. Like the currents of the Conduit, the forces of life take us places we never expected to go. And by the time we realize where we are headed, it is too late to change the course. All we can do is ride it out and try to live with the consequences.

Death and murder were no stranger to Knight. He’d grown up so entangled with the two, he could not separate himself from them. Rachel was different. She’d come to Gehenna halfway near innocent. She’d objected when he’d killed to protect her, killed men who would have tortured her, maybe killed her. And now she’d probably killed almost as many people in a day as he had in a lifetime. Maybe more.

She sat quietly at the controls of the shuttle, as if suddenly unsure how to fly the thing. Not for the first time, he wished he knew what to say, how to comfort someone. Maybe Phoebe was right. Maybe he’d failed to learn basic lessons as a child other people learned. Growing up a Gibborim had made him strong. Hadn’t it?

Sometimes, he wondered whether the price was worth it. Sometimes, he felt he’d give quite a lot to know what to say to either of the women in situations like these. At times, Rachel was so sure of herself, so certain she knew best for the whole human race. She was arrogant like that, but he liked it in her. Confidence mattered.

Phoebe had that confidence, too, but hers was different. It was hard-won, and she took everything like a damn challenge. It was all too easy to offend her without even trying.

From childhood it was drilled into him—trust himself, trust his instincts. There was no place for doubt. A moment’s hesitation and you were dead. Strike fast. Strike hard. Don’t look back.

But Rachel was looking back. Every minute or so she glanced at the wreckage of destroyers as she passed. Probably imagined the crews. Their families.

Knight shifted in his seat. If he had stopped to think about the families of those he killed, could he have even done it? Could he have been Gibborim?

“Are you ashamed of me, too?” Rachel asked.

“No.” Never. Rachel’s convictions carried her through life like a whirlwind. He could only admire someone like that. He supposed it was the same with Phoebe. If he’d offended her, he should try to make amends. Maybe she was right and the fault was his—something he couldn’t see because his childhood had been so different from other people’s.

“I feel your emotions … I just can’t understand them. You starting to doubt me?”

Knight folded his arms. “Would it matter? Did you care whether I believed in your crusade before?”

“No. I mean, it shouldn’t. It’s just … Things changed.”

Things had. Once, he’d thought she would give him children. Then David showed up. And here he was going to rescue the bastard. His life might be better if the man never returned.

Not that he disliked the Sentinel. David had taught him some excellent techniques, had spoken to him with respect—if grudgingly. He supposed they shared common ground in caring for Rachel. And in being pulled along in her off rotation mission to save the human race from itself.

“Rachel,” he said at last. “The moment you let go of your convictions, you fail. You don’t need my belief.”

“Maybe I do,” she mumbled.

“Not like you need David.” He regretted it the moment he said it. Reminding her of him did nothing for his cause.

She shook her head. “God, Knight, what do I say to you? Besides, I’ve seen the tension between you and Phoebe.”

“She’s a cold bitch.”

“Yeah, right. I can feel your emotions, and hers. Neither of you feels anything cold about the other, Knight.”

No way. He’d made the mistake of starting to think she could be another friend. Sparring with her, wrestling, even just talking. She’d asked him about the weapons he used as a Gibborim, especially fascinated with the kyoketsu. He’d been unable to find another since leaving Gehenna, and Phoebe had said she might try to help him. They’d talked for hours about different techniques with the whip-dagger or the sword.

But that was before. Before he’d gone to Ekron with her and seen how off rotation she was. She hated him now, he was sure. And that shouldn’t bother him so damn much. Here he was, actually trying to think of how to apologize to the Icie. Him! Apologize.

Rachel snickered. “You two have been itching to jump into bed since the day you met, so much so sometimes I can’t even … Well, never mind that. But maybe you should just fuck her and get it over with.”

“Because that worked out so well with you.”

Rachel’s mouth clamped shut.

Damn. Another thing he shouldn’t have said. And since when should he have to care what other people thought so much? Since when should he have to watch his words? There was a time people feared his every thought, no one would dare question him.

Who was he kidding? He was no longer that man, and part of the reason was sitting in the shuttle beside him. And despite himself, despite it all, he was going down to the planet to help her find her damn boyfriend. What kind of a punk had he become?

There was nothing between him and Phoebe, and now there could be nothing else between him and Rachel. It was fine. He’d been alone his entire life. He could find temporary respite with a woman, of course, and as a Gibborim, he’d had plenty to share his bed. But before Shirin, none had shared his heart.

He slipped the holo glasses from his coat.

“What is it?” Rachel asked. “They look broken.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll bet Phoebe could fix them. She’s got an engineering degree, you know …”

Yes. He was definitely going to ask her to fix a memento from his dead ex-lover. He tucked the glasses back in his coat. “It’s nothing. Easily replaced.”

“Some things can’t be replaced, Knight. You should know that.”

How true.

Rachel was his friend. With Hadrian gone, she was his only friend. The last thing he had left to hold onto. So if she needed David back, he’d go find the Sentinel for her.

There was a time he lived only for himself. Those days might have been simpler. He worried only about his next job, only about getting the money to get off Gehenna. And then Rachel came along. But the worst thing was, he couldn’t even hate her for it—because those days had also been lonely. Lonelier than he’d ever realized until she’d come in and filled that void.

Maybe he couldn’t quite understand her love for humanity as a whole, or her need to better it. But he didn’t have to.

“Rachel, I know you feel bad about the people who died today.”

She focused on the planet’s atmosphere as she dropped the shuttle in for descent.

“You care so much because you’re still a good person. It means the woman who set out to save the universe is still in there. Remember that, when you’re beating yourself up over this.”

She quirked the edge of a smile. “So you’re saying I shouldn’t feel bad that I feel bad, because feeling bad means I’m a good person?”

Well, that sounded stupid. This was why he was no good with this kind of shit. “I’m saying I wouldn’t have hesitated to blow the Sentinels away. And I wouldn’t be tearing myself up over it, either.”

Rachel glowered.

Apparently, that wasn’t the right thing to say, either.

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX

November 27th

Days of waiting on this shuttle are interminable. I receive updates from Phoebe, each one more dire than the last. I should have gone with Knight.

Two days on Horesh and Knight had found nothing.

He had insisted Rachel remain on the shuttle.

“You might need me,” she’d said.

The look he’d given her had stilled that objection. He was better alone. Faster. Quieter.

He crept over a rock precipice to spy on the settlement below. Carved from stone, like the last two. Gehenna had been warm, but this place was damn hot. At least until night fell, then the planet seemed to lose heat like someone flipped a switch. He wrapped the scarf closer around his face and slunk toward the outpost.

When she’d come to Gehenna, Rachel had seemed taken aback the Angels had created such a hellish penal colony. Yet her own government had done nearly the same thing here. If the Sentinels abandoned this place, in a few centuries it would likely be no different than Gehenna. A world ruled by the strong, enslaved by its own corruption. Festering in irrelevance and lost to the rest of the universe.

The last two settlements he’d snuck in windows and stalked the shadows seeking David. Sooner or later, though, he had to show himself to ask questions. And when he did, gangs invariably swarmed him. Carrion beetles seeking fresh meat, eager to assert themselves over anyone else. Such a fragile pecking order, needing constant reinforcement.

And so he’d left a mess of bodies in his wake.

This time he wouldn’t bother creeping around. Right in the front door and get it over with.

Knight slid down the rock face, then strode into the settlement like he owned the place. Perhaps that was enough, because those few men watching the door took one look at him and then looked away. Typical, he supposed. They wanted easy prey.

Still, he wasn’t there ten minutes before he felt them following him. Forming up around him, herding him toward an open room on the third story. Unaware he was herding them, as well.

His fingers wrapped around a long, thin chain. Phoebe hadn’t been able to replace his monofilament kyoketsu, but she’d at least given him reinforced chain.

He stepped out toward the balcony, reveling in the sunlight. After a lifetime beneath Gehenna’s ash-filled sky, beneath its dying red sun, the bright sunlight here was both invigorating and unnerving.

One of the men reached for his shoulder. Knight could feel it. He spun, wrapping the chain around the man’s wrist to block his attempt. He kicked out another man’s knee, then slammed his palm into a third man’s face. Those two men fell before the rest of the gang had even realized what happened.

Someone shouted, and chaos erupted. Time slowed around him. A ganger swung at him in slow motion. Knight stepped to the side, then dodged another blow. He hooked the chain around an attacker’s neck, then kicked the man whose wrist he’d snared. The bastard tumbled over the balcony, shrieking. The man with the chain on his neck jerked forward, slammed into the balcony wall, gasping for breath.

Two more men tried to grab him. He snatched one’s wrist and broke it, then slapped his hand like a knife into the other’s throat. Someone swung a club. Knight flipped up onto the balcony to dodge and flung throwing knives at two more attackers.

And then everyone was on the floor. Pathetic. Thugs trying to show strength. Utterly unprepared for a professional fighter. Unaware someone like him—death in the shadows—could lurk so close. Gibborim training had made him strong. He was beginning to think Sentinels were the only threat to him out there. And since David had started teaching him Merkabah, even they were less of a challenge.

Knight grabbed the man with the broken wrist by the shirt and hauled him to his feet. “Where is David McGregor?”

The man glared at Knight, then glanced at his fallen comrades. The one with the chain around his neck had suffocated. Others were dead, unconscious, or broken. The thug’s face quickly fell. “Who?”

“A Sentinel, imprisoned here not long ago. Short brown hair. Tall. Probably broke a bunch of bones when he came in. Ring any bells?”

The ganger looked like he was about to spit, then thought better of it. So he did know David. Finally. Knight was tired of scouring this dust ball for the man.

“You gonna kill him?”

Knight smirked. Making friends everywhere, David? “Just take me to him.”

He released the man, who clutched his broken wrist and stumbled through the corridors. He retreated down the stairs, and headed through a dark hall.

“If you lead me into an ambush I’ll break the other wrist and both your legs,” Knight said. In a place like this, it would be a death sentence.

The man’s steps faltered, and he glanced back at him. “Uh, no. No, it’s this way,” he said, pointing to a different hall. He led Knight down another set of stairs, back toward the ground level, and around several tunnels.

They passed a well where many men and women had gathered. The gangs likely tried to control access to water, but they couldn’t restrict it entirely. Without water, people died. The dead were hard to manipulate or extort. He could only imagine what the weak had to do to get water here. A trio of half-naked women against the wall told him all he needed to know. One had a black eye and busted lip. Another didn’t even bother trying to cover herself where someone had ripped open her shirt.

Part of him wanted to just kill these people, all the gangers responsible for this hell. Once, he wouldn’t have cared—or would have tried not to. Had Rachel’s soft heart worn off on him? He didn’t know these people, they weren’t his friends. In fact, they were criminals sentenced here by Sentinels for crimes severe enough to warrant such abuse. As if anything one could do in life deserved a fate worse than death.

He could walk from room to room killing every ganger he found. But in the end, they’d be replaced before the week was out. A new pecking order would form. Those who had been oppressed would become the oppressors. They’d turn on their fellows. A few might be better off, but most would find their situation unchanged.

While he’d only amass more blood on his hands. And he had a lifetime of that already.

Nearby, he saw the body of an Icie, barely a boy. Thank God Phoebe hadn’t come to this planet. The heat would have wilted her like a flower. This place might be a death sentence for anyone, but to send an Icie here … It sounded like something the Shadow Council of Gehenna would do, not something he’d expected from the supposedly righteous Sentinels.

“That was his friend,” the ganger said.

Knight sighed, and motioned the man to lead on.

The ganger led him to a chamber not far from the well, where David sat alone, a scarf wrapped around his face. His head was down on his arms, but Knight was sure it was him. The Sentinel looked up when he approached, his face covered in a mess of beard.

“What the bloody void are you doing here?”

Knight glanced back at the ganger. “Leave.” The man did, and Knight knelt beside David. “Nice to see you, too.”

“Dear God, tell me you didn’t bust in here, violating Sentinel command?”

Knight shrugged. “I could tell you that, if you like.”

“Rachel sent you for this? She sent you for me … Shite, man! Aren’t we in enough trouble without the two of you flaunting every law in the universe? You cannot just go breaking into a prison, Knight!”

There was gratitude for you. It didn’t really surprise him. David was too stiff, too attached to a uniform he no longer even wore. Maybe Knight could understand. It was hard to break away from the things you knew, the things you were raised to. Without Shirin, Knight probably never would have done so. It wasn’t like he could claim some great moral outrage at the Shadow Council’s orders. He’d split from them for a women. And, in the end, he suspected David would too.

“Rachel’s in danger. She needs you now, and this is your only chance to help her.”

David sat up straight at that and scratched his head. “What’s the lass done now?”

“Mizraim demanded the Ark and she refused. They’re after her. So’s the whole Conglomerate. Oh, and she’s planning to find Eden.”

The look on his face alone was worth the trip. “She … what?”

He shrugged. “She says finding our homeworld will help unify humanity, or whatever.”

“Aye? Eden? As in …”

Knight clapped the Sentinel on the shoulder. “Come on. You can sputter your objections later. We both know you’re not going to leave her in danger.”

David sighed, and rose. “Suppose you’re right. You’re still a bit of an annoying wanker, you know that?”

Knight didn’t even know what that meant. He suspected he’d been called worse.

David followed him out of the chamber, but paused at the body of the Icie. He knelt down. “Sorry, lad,” he whispered.

Knight said nothing.

He never knew what to say.

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

Even from down on the planet, I can still feel the Ark in orbit above me. It is hard to describe, but I would almost say it misses me. I miss it too. And, unbelievable as it sounds, the Ark seems to understand my feelings for David and why I’m doing this.

The shuttle sat on the cracked dirt, inviting him in. David was never more glad he’d left two of the Logos shuttles for the Ark. The hatch opened and Rachel stepped out, her hair blowing in the desert wind.

David ran toward her, though every step was an effort. Lack of food and dehydration had made him weak. The nanobot injection Knight had given him had cured the bruises and sunburns, but could do nothing for his exhaustion. Still, the mere sight of Rachel gave him strength. He threw his arms around her.

“Mac!” She embraced him, and he never wanted to let her go.

Then he felt her lift her head to look at Knight over his shoulder. “You found him. Thank you so much.”

“Of course I found him.” Knight pushed past them and sat in the shuttle.

David blew out a breath and guided Rachel inside as well. “Best not stay here long, then.”

“You have no idea,” she said. “While we were down here, the Sentinels sent in five cruisers, and I suspect they have battleships on the way. Phoebe’s been keeping them at bay with threats, but their numbers are growing. We have to get the void out of here.”

David sat in the pilot’s chair. They all knew he was the best. No use avoiding the point. “Aye. Strap in.”

As soon as they did, he launched the shuttle into the sky. There were probably other people on this planet who didn’t deserve to be here, and part of him wanted to save them all. He’d failed that Icie kid—the lad had died in his arms. Despite David’s best efforts, water alone could not save the man from heat stroke.

But Knight had been right about one thing—he would make Rachel his priority. In his days on Horesh he had barely slept, but he had dozed, imagining her face. He’d thought he’d never see her again. Ten years was a lifetime, and he never expected to live through the whole sentence. Sooner or later, exhaustion would have forced him into deeper sleep, and someone would have slit his throat.

Countless hours on the edge of consciousness had allowed him too much time to replay memories of his life. But it always came back to those days with Rachel on New Rome. Life meant nothing without someone to share it with. You could walk through the universe alone, existing for a century or more, but it wasn’t living. Life meant connections.

Maybe he couldn’t rekindle his connection to the Sentinels. For so long they had given his life purpose—duty and honor. A mission to uphold civilization. A mission he took every bit as seriously as Rachel took her own self-appointed task.

But he was more than just a mission. He was a man, and those cold nights on Horesh had forced him to face that. Because, when he lay there, he wasn’t dreaming of all the glorious deeds he’d done as a Sentinel, but of cloudless days beneath the blue sky. Of days spent with her.

“I missed you, too,” she said.

Bugger. Her empathic abilities had stolen the words from his heart before he could even say them.

He heard Knight snort behind them and tried to tune the Gehennan out.

“I just …” Rachel said. “I mean, I was afraid for you down there. You never should have gone to the Tabernacle.”

David sighed. This again. “I had no choice, lass. And you shouldn’t have come for me here, either.”

The shuttle broke the atmosphere and headed for the Ark. Scanners did show numerous Sentinel ships blocking the way to the Conduit Gate. This was going to be bloody. Those were his people up there, and Rachel would try to blast her way through.

“What the void?” she said. “You think we should have left you to die in that place?”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much what he thought,” Knight said.

“Mac!”

He scratched his head, focusing on the controls. “Aye … Well, you should have. They’re only going be after you worse now.”

“Right,” she said. “Because stealing the most valuable ship in the universe wouldn’t be enough reason. David, don’t you understand what you mean to me?”

Was she saying what he thought she was? Perhaps now she’d been forced to realize it, too. “I’m not the empath, lass … I only know how I feel. And I know I love you, Rach. I wouldn’t want you risking your life for me.”

“I had to—because I love you.”

She loved him too. David’s pulse quickened. He tried not to grin like an idiot.

Knight sighed and cracked his neck behind them. David glanced at the Gehennan, who shrugged. Poor bloke was in a right awkward spot, but not really David’s problem.

He locked in docking procedures with the Ark and rose from his seat. Rachel did, too, and he embraced her. He held her close for a long moment, until Knight coughed. David released Rachel, and she reached up to stroke his face.

“God, you need a shave, Mac.”

“Aye, lass.” He glanced at the rapidly approaching Ark. “What’s this shite about Eden, now? You can’t be serious.”

Rachel laughed, shaking her head. “You know I am. And now that you’re here, maybe you can help us find the way. If there’s a better Conduit pilot, I haven’t met her yet.”

“Aye. Now we hear the real reason you came to my rescue.”

All the mirth slipped from her face, though he’d spoken in jest. “You know better than that, Mac.”

Of course he did.

Beyond the Ark, in addition to the Sentinels, there was a QI battleship. Maybe he was a fool to encourage Rachel. Half the universe was against them, and the other half would be soon if she kept true to form. And by helping her, maybe he was offering her a ride straight to hell.

But then, he could hardly turn his back on her, either. Not now. Not ever.

CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT

The Ark has a mind, though not a human one. It does not think in words, and thus every attempt I’ve made to transcribe its thought patterns has failed. In a way, it is like a child, a being driven by passion, living in the moment. But then, aren’t we all?

A missile exploded just ahead of the shuttle, cut down by a plasma bolt from the Ark. Rachel had no way of knowing which ship had shot at them, but whoever it was clearly wasn’t playing anymore. David landed the shuttle in the Ark hangar and she leapt out of her seat, then took off for the bridge.

Phoebe was supposed to hold them off, not drive them to open fire on a shuttle. A moment later Knight and David were behind her. The Ark had a lift to the bridge—a circular platform without walls or even rails. For the first several days she’d taken the sloping pathways between decks, not even realizing the lift existed. Not until the Ark had shown her. It showed her everything. That’s how she knew it was meant for her. They were connected. It had chosen her.

The lift arrived outside the bridge and she rushed inside. Phoebe stood at a console, firing shots off the bow of the Sentinel ships. The Logos had arrived.

Incoming calls from both QI and the Sentinels flashed on the screen. Phoebe ignored them all, frantically flinging plasma bolts ahead of the incoming ships and shooting down drones.

Rachel sat in her chair and the hologram flared to life. Damage registered along the hull. They were injured. Those bastards had shot her. And Phoebe had fired on the QI ship—part of its hull had breached. The girl was going to start a damned war, and it would be on Rachel’s shoulders.

She just had to protect the people she loved. Like David, and Knight, and … of course, the Ark. It needed her. The ship had waited six hundred years for someone to come and join with it. She could never abandon it.

She waved Galizur’s call onto the screen, and his face filled one wall of the bridge. “Ms. Jordan, at last. You have overstepped yourself, this time. Five of my crew are dead, and I can assure you there will be severe consequences to your egregious error. Surrender now and I will show leniency—”

“Cut call.”

The Mazzaroth flashed off.

“Right,” she said. “It’s time for us to get out of here.”

“Yup, yup,” Phoebe said. “Fly in, start a war, fly away.”

“They’re between us and the Conduit,” David said.

They were not taking the Ark from her. No way. “Not for long. Power up all the ion cannons, Phoebe. Clear us a path. Don’t destroy them unless they refuse to move. We’re making a break for it.”

Her empathic sense felt David judging her. It was mixed with love and relief and fear, but she felt it there. He knew she was going to burn those ships down to save themselves. His brothers-in-arms. But she had no choice. He had to understand that. He’d have to.

She piloted the ship straight for the Gate. They’d know where she was going and they’d move, or they’d suffer the consequences.

The Sentinel ships squared off, not giving way.

“Fire on them.”

She glanced at Phoebe, who had done nothing.

“I …” the Cold-worlder stammered. She was a Sentinel, too. She could fire warning shots, but actually trying to harm her own people …

“I understand.” Rachel reached into the hologram and launched ion streams at the ships in the way. She didn’t track their movements, just fired the beams in a straight line ahead of them. Let it be their choice if they moved.

Of course, the beam traveled too fast for them to avoid the initial hit. It punched into a cruiser and began to tear right through its kinetic shields. No shield would last long against that kind of punishment. The cruiser banked out of the way, and Rachel steered right past it, then dove into the Conduit.

“They’re following,” Phoebe said. Her voice was hollow. In here, Rachel could feel the other woman’s hesitation, her doubt, her fear. It became her own. As if she had been the one firing on her own comrades. The sensation twisted up her gut and made her want to vomit.

Was she becoming a monster? She had threatened the lives of Sentinels to rescue David, to save herself. But he was the man she loved, and she had to protect the Ark. Hadn’t she acted as she must?

In a way, she supposed she was becoming like Knight. Practical. Deadly practical, detached. Separated from the people she was trying to save.

“Mac … You can lose them in the Conduit. I can transfer control to the console …” He wouldn’t know how to fly from the chair, not yet.

“Aye.” David’s emotions were a jumble, too. He blamed himself, she could feel it. As if everything that happened, all the death, was on his shoulders. And she knew it would eat him up inside if she let it. She’d have to find a way to get through to him.

David approached the console and took over flight controls, steering them down one pathway and then the next. His choices were intuitive, confident. Fast. And getting faster as he acclimated to the controls. He was a better pilot than most could ever hope to be. She could only imagine the ways the pathways of the Conduit unfolded in his mind. How much clearer everything must look. Maybe that’s how the Conduit had looked to the Angels themselves—not a mystery, at all. Infinite pathways clearly mapped out, with a million routes to any possible destination.

But right now, there was only one destination she really wanted to find.

Eden.

There was still at least one route back. She knew there had to be. And David could find it.

But first, they needed to find somewhere to hide, to rest. They were all exhausted. She could feel it coming off her crew. They were nearing the breaking point, physically and emotionally.

“Mac, after you lose them, find an uninhabited system to drop us out of the Conduit.”

He grunted.

“Uninhabited?” Knight asked.

“So word won’t get back to QI or the Sentinels of where we are,” Rachel said.

They could buy themselves a few days, perhaps.

CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

November 29th

Quasar Industries actually existed during the Days of Glory, as a company primarily responsible for manufacturing ships. Following the Vanishing, the company grew into a megacorp and began to focus on research and development of new technology. They got ahead through exclusive contracts with both the Sentinels and several other companies, and by reverse engineering Angel technology.

Now he’d not only been thrown out of the service, he’d broken out of prison and helped Rachel fire on his own people. Aye, David was well and truly buggered. He’d borrowed Knight’s dojo, trying to work out some stress, but met with limited success.

He’d sparred with the Gehennan in the morning. A frustrating experience. Knight was just too bloody fast, and since David had coached him on technique, he was that much more daunting an opponent. Of course, David had gotten a good blow in. He’d never share all his secrets.

Eventually, though, Knight had left him alone.

Funny, the Gehennan seemed even more dour than David was. He knew why, of course. Knight wanted Rachel, and clearly she’d chosen David.

So, for himself, he’d lost all he stood for and finally gained the woman he wanted. The price was steep—so steep it was hard to revel in the chance they finally had together.

Last night they’d shared a quiet dinner. And the passion was there. It had been too long since they’d shared an intimate embrace, too long since they’d made love. And last night had certainly been what they both needed.

Except, afterward, he’d found no words to whisper in her ear. No imaginings of their future together, no dreams of their children filling a happy house. It was hard to imagine any future, now. With the Empire and the Conglomerate after them, where could they live? They’d followed Rachel’s dreams into a singularity—a hole from which there was no escape, no turning back. And it was only a matter of time before they were all crushed by the weight of it.

In choosing her, in letting her follow her fool crusade, he may have damned them all. Which, in a way, made even her fate his fault. For the life of him, he couldn’t see a way through from here. Even if she found Eden, how could that help them?

He kept his motions tight, his form perfect. Merkabah was about efficiency of motion. Every movement was calculated to inflict maximum damage with minimum effort. Every fight should be finished in the blink of an eye.

Once, when the Ark had no air, he had given Knight a Sentinel suit to explore this place. The suit was still here, and Knight had returned it. It meant David had a uniform he no longer deserved. He hadn’t been able to make himself put it back on. That honor had been stripped from him, and putting it on felt like one more crime on his record, one last line he couldn’t cross. Except, he knew he would have to. Eventually the suit, the armor, might be all that would keep them alive.

The door opened, and he turned to see Rachel enter the dojo.

“What is it with this place? Every time I turn around, you or Phoebe or Knight is in here.”

David tried to smile. He supposed it was what separated Rachel from the rest of them. Everyone here, except Rachel, was a warrior. Even Leah. Trained killers whose lives depended on their fighting skills day in and day out. Rachel had basic self-defense training and was a decent marksman, but she wasn’t a fighter. She was an academic. Maybe that meant she was better suited to lead the expedition. Or maybe worse—maybe this had become a war zone and he should have taken the ship from her. But she would never forgive him, and he could never do that to her. So instead he’d follow her into hell.

“What is it, lass?”

“An announcement just came over the Mazzaroth. Jericho Corp is claiming the Sentinels have taken the Ark and are refusing to share its technology with the rest of humanity.”

Bloody void. “They’re inciting the whole Conglomerate against us.”

“Not us, the Sentinels.”

Right. But David was a Sentinel. Even without the uniform, without the commission, his heart remained with them. How could it not? His dream from childhood had been to redeem his mum’s name. Now he had joined her in infamy.

“The Sentinels can deny they have the craft,” he said, “but no one will believe them.”

Rachel brushed her hair away from her face. The concern filling her eyes made him want to run to her and sweep her up in his arms. To tell her everything would be well. To kiss away her worries and her doubts. But he couldn’t. He walked closer, but couldn’t make himself hold her.

“Remember the man you said was running Gehenna, Caleb Gavet?” she asked. “Word is he’s the new Chairman of Jericho Corp. So what’s his game? Why stir up people against the Sentinels?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t like it.”

She quirked half a smile. “Didn’t expect you would.”

David scratched his head. “Aye, let me get cleaned up. Then I need to make a call.”

“Mac …”

He shook his head. “It’ll be all right, lass. I’m not going to give away our position.”

He returned to his quarters and showered off, his mind racing. Jericho Corp was obviously trying to get the Ark for themselves. Was it possible they really thought the Sentinels had taken the ship? Quasar Industries had to know better, they’d been there, but QI and Jericho were barely on speaking terms, last he heard. Maybe this Gavet was just confused. Of course, it could be selling the man short. Maybe it was some plot to weaken the public’s faith in the Sentinels.

Either way, he needed to know what was going on. He’d made mistakes—he couldn’t quite say where, but he must have, to wind up here. All he could do now was try to correct them. But he couldn’t help his people unless he knew what was going on.

There were few Sentinels who would even deign to speak to him, condemned as he was as a traitor. But he could try. He’d earned some loyalty on every ship he’d ever served on. He’d spent his time with the crew, never setting himself apart, and he knew they loved him for it—the officers and the enlisted alike.

“Mazzaroth secure channel to Mahlah Blaise. Private mode.”

Several minutes passed before he received an answer. Maybe she had to find private quarters, or maybe she’d debated not answering at all. Either way, when Mahlah’s face appeared on his screen he breathed a sigh of relief.

“McGregor.” She said it like an accusation.

So it was going to be bumpy flying, then. “Mahlah, just hear me out.”

“Give me one reason why I should.”

“The Phoenix Dwarf.” He’d saved her life there last year.

She lowered her head, shaking it, and for a moment he thought she would cut the line. “Speak,” she said, at last.

“Look here, I know you don’t understand everything I’ve done lately. Please know I never meant to betray my command. There were factors you don’t know about.”

“There are always factors, David. I know what Captain Waller was doing to that civilian, which is why I went along with you. And I know you took the fall for the rest of us. But they put Waller back in command of the ship and they sent you away. Your noble sacrifice means nothing since you broke out of prison. You killed Sentinels.”

Mahlah was a senior officer; it shouldn’t surprise him she knew. And Rachel had done the killing, but he supposed he was culpable enough in that.

“Mahlah, I never wanted that. And I didn’t ask them to rescue me, but it’s done. I need to know what’s going on. I have to do what I can to make this right.”

Mahlah snickered. “Make it right? How? You want to know what’s going on? Fine. The Conglomerate has filed a sanction against us. Which would be bad enough, but reports came in from the front that Asherah is mobilizing. Most likely the Confederacy plans to use the turmoil to press their claim to the outlying galaxies. Chances are good we’ll be at war in a few days. And, if I had to guess, I imagine they’ll be coming for the Ark, too, David. So, yeah, go ahead. Make this right.”

Well, shite.

“Mahlah, listen—”

“I have to go. Mazzaroth off.”

The screen went dead.

After forty years of relative peace, war was finally coming between Mizraim and Asherah. And instead of being where he belonged, on a Sentinel ship, he was caught in the middle.

A fugitive from both sides.

CHAPTER SEVENTY

November 30th

Jericho Corp has been a long-time rival of Quasar Industries. The two companies have separate portfolios of interest, but there was enough overlap to create a continuous competition for resources and customers. Jericho’s main focus has been on nanotechnology and medical research. Since QI also uses nanobots in some of its designs, such as nanomesh armor, that has become a primary point of contention.

“You sent for me,” Knight said.

Leah jumped at his approach. To unaware of her surroundings. She was supposed to be a warrior, but if he’d meant her harm, he’d have killed her before she knew he was there. He hadn’t even intended to sneak up on her.

The Ark had no medical bay, but she’d recommissioned one of the science labs for the purpose. Knight rarely came here, though she’d asked to examine him a few times. She’d wanted blood samples to test his DNA. Something Rachel had said about his ancestors being genetically engineered. Probably part of some Angel experiment.

He had no idea how to feel about that. It might have explained his preternatural reflexes, but it only opened more questions. He tried to tell himself he was no different than any of the other non-Norm Races. Void, Phoebe was an Icie, and Leah was an Amphie. Neither of those Races lived on Gehenna, as far he knew.

It meant Leah was an oddity to him. Hard to even imagine a world covered in water, much less a people designed to live there.

Leah grunted, then motioned for him to sit on one of the benches. “I’m concerned about this ship’s … captain. I know you spent a lot of time with her on Gehenna. I trust David, but I have to be honest …”

He folded his arms. “You don’t have to. If you choose to, then out with it.”

She sighed. “We’ve become fugitives, Knight.”

Nothing new for him. It seemed everywhere he went some government or another was hunting him. And he kept killing them until they got the message. Which they never did.

“Rachel’s an idealist,” he said, “but she has a way of seeing things through in the end. You can trust her.”

Leah sighed and fiddled with a tablet on the desk. “You’re close to her, obviously. But you have deeper feelings for her, too. I see it in the way you look at her, when she’s not looking.”

“We’re just friends.”

It’s all they could ever be, now. She’d chosen David. He’d been a fool to think anything more could come of it. Even back on Gehenna she’d tried to tell him, but he wouldn’t listen. But now, after seeing them on the shuttle, after having to listen to their emotional turmoil, she’d no doubt fallen right into his bed. And likely was happier for it.

“But that’s not what you want, is it?” Leah said.

“Look who’s talking. Is it Rachel you’re concerned about, or do you just not like any woman getting so close to David? I’ve seen how you look at him, doc.”

The Amphie looked away, focused on the tablet. “There’s nothing like that. I don’t have time for any … David’s my best friend. There could never be anything more.”

He didn’t have to be an empath to see some buried pain there. He knew it only too well. A few years ago he’d been an assassin with no other purpose in life but the kill. That’s how the Shadow Council had raised him and he was the best. And then Shirin came into his life, fucked up a mission, and wound so tightly around his brain he could not get her out.

And in the end, they’d run together. They’d run from his government and hers. They’d run from a fate they couldn’t escape. For the first time in his life, he’d loved someone, even if he hadn’t known how to put it into words, how to understand it.

“Someone hurt you, before,” he said.

“No. I’m fine.”

He jumped off the bench and stalked closer. She’d started this. Now she would get the same treatment. “Past lover? Somebody died?”

She spun on him. “Is that what happened to you?”

“Yeah,” he said, his voice just a whisper. Somebody died.

And he’d been twice the fool to think he could replace her with Rachel.

Leah recoiled, as if she hadn’t intended to hit so close to the mark. Or regretted it. Whatever. It was over, done a long time ago. Why should he even talk to this woman? But somehow, she seemed to understand, and he couldn’t stop himself.

“She was Asheran. She’d said she’d leave her government to be with me. It just … didn’t work out like that.”

Leah sighed. “I was with someone a long time. We … I thought we’d get married.” Her voice became fragile. “Every time I asked, he had some reason for delay. Finally, I insisted, and he broke it off. And I ran off to join the Sentinels.” She looked up at him, her eyes wide. “I never told anyone about it. Not even David.”

But she had confided in him, of all people. It was a strange kind of honor. He didn’t know how to feel about the crew on this ship placing their trust in him. Rachel was one thing, but the others were turning to him like he was one of them.

Knight pulled up a chair beside Leah. “I won’t tell either.”

“Thanks.” Leah swallowed, and was quiet for a moment.

Yet another woman he didn’t know how to comfort. God, Phoebe was right. He had no idea how to deal with people if he wasn’t killing them.

“Asheran?” Leah said at last. “Really? Was she …?”

“Cybered?” Knight snickered. That had been hard to get past, at first. The First Commandment was so ingrained, even in him. And yet, after a while, he could almost forget. She was, in the end, still human.

“The Angels have a lot of implants, too,” Leah said. “I wish Rachel would let me revive one for a better examination. They’re clearly cybernetic organisms, but it’s hard to tell how much is man and how much is machine.”

“And how much is divine?” Mostly, he chose to ignore the Angels they carried around in the cryo chamber. It was easier than wrapping his mind around the idea they had frozen emissaries of God on the ship.

“I don’t know. I can’t measure divinity, but the cybernetics run deep. It’s not just the wings. There’s metal and nanobots throughout their bodies. I have to be honest—it’s scary as void. They commanded us to never do anything like that, but they did it to themselves.”

He shrugged. “The same rules don’t apply to Angels. Obviously. ‘Man Shall Not Alter the Form of Man’. It says nothing about Angels altering us. Or themselves.”

She was quiet a moment. “So did the implants make her … different?”

“I never knew her before she had them.”

“I mean, make her less human.”

“I’m not the best to judge that.” He was the predator in the night. The darkness that consumed mankind. Who was he to measure anyone’s humanity?

All he could say was Shirin was special.

Leah sighed. “And Rachel? Can you judge her? Are you sure she’s fit to command to this ship, Knight?”

Rachel had gotten through the chaos on Gehenna, but it was chaos she had largely created. Still, they were in it now, and he knew of no one else to see them out of it.

“She might be the only one who is,” he said at last.

Leah grunted. “I hope you’re right. And for what it’s worth, I wish she had chosen you.”

But Rachel didn’t.

And the truth was, Knight was better off alone. The way things were going, Rachel was going to need a protector, not a lover. And that was one thing he was suited for. The only thing.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

December 1st

The Asheran Confederacy arose in 2642 EY, following the War of Seven Systems—a misnamed war, as it actually grew to encompass several dozen solar systems, but that’s another story. Following the War, a loose confederacy of systems was formed. The formation of such a united government naturally halted Mizraim’s attempt to reunify the human race under a single rule.

David stared at the news bulletin across the Mazzaroth, reading it for the third time. War. War had broken out between the Mizraim Empire and the Asheran Confederacy. War between his people and the enemy who had destroyed his mum. The enemy he’d sworn to protect the universe against.

Asherah had invaded Mizraim space. They’d seized whole solar systems, destroyed Sentinel cruisers. People were dying and he was hiding in some uninhabited system, watching it happen. While he ran from the consequences of his actions, the universe burned around him. And though he had done it all for Rachel, some things he could not abide.

No more. He was a Sentinel. He had a duty to protect people, his people, and he’d be buggered if he was going to sit here and do nothing. He strode toward the bridge, almost breaking into a run. The Ark could make all the difference in such a conflict. Even if the Sentinels wouldn’t have him back, with this ship he could still aid their cause. He could still protect his people.

Rachel was sitting in the command chair when he arrived, as she always seemed to be these days. She’d become so attached to this thing. He could understand the allure, the mystery it posed. This was a thing out of legend, and she’d found it. He understood. What he didn’t like was when she began talking like it was an extension of herself.

This thing was alive, and it was possible she was becoming too connected to its mind. One day soon he would have to do something about that, but right now, he had more pressing concerns.

“We need to go to the front,” he said.

“What?” Her eyes were glazed over, staring at something only she could see. Like a bloody Mammon addict. Angels above, what was this ship doing to her? Would he even be able to cut her off from it?

“Rachel. War is raging between Mizraim and Asherah. We have to go out to the front and help our people.”

She blinked, shook her head, then looked at him with wide, but blissfully clear, eyes. “Are you completely off rotation? Mizraim, the Conglomerate, and probably the Confederacy are all looking for us, trying to take my ship away, and you want to march in and hand it to them?”

“No, lass. I want to go and make a difference in the universe. Isn’t that why you wanted the damn Ark, back before you even knew it was a ship?”

She blinked again, as if trying to shake her mind free. “Look, we came here to rest for a bit. We’ve got to find Eden, Mac. Now I know you can do it. You can navigate the pathways like no one else. Can you imagine it? Being known as the man who found the way back to Eden?”

“Eden has been lost for thirty-one centuries! It can wait a few more weeks while we address the situation in the here and now.”

Rachel stood and stepped toward him. “A few weeks? You think this conflict will be over in a few weeks? Even if it was, you think we could keep the Ark from all sides that long? Consider, for a moment, what it would mean if we found Eden. That might well end the fight right there. Who, in Mizraim or Asherah, would not be left in awe of such a discovery? It’s our homeworld, Mac. If we give back what the Angels took away—”

“What they took? They took us from there for a reason! They saved mankind from the Adversary and carried us away from a broken, barren world.”

She waved the comment away. “The Adversary has been gone for thirty-one centuries, too. Take us back to Eden.”

He sighed. Somehow, he doubted even the return of Eden would stop the war. Certainly, such a discovery might well pause the hostilities. But the cessation would be only temporary. The divide between Mizraim and the Confederacy had grown deeper over the centuries. It would have to come to a head. And his place was alongside the Sentinels.

“What makes you think there’s even anything left to find, Rach? The planet was scorched. The Codex calls it a wasteland.”

“The Angels wrote the Codex. They didn’t want us to go looking for it.”

“Then we bloody well shouldn’t be looking for it!”

She pressed her palms against his chest. Her hands were warm through his shirt, her touch a comfort. “Please, Mac. We both want to save mankind in our way. Help me.”

He swallowed, unable to form words. It was too hard to deny her anything, but … He took her hands in his own, rubbing them. “If I do this … Once we find Eden, or if we look and don’t find it, you have to use the Ark to help Mizraim against Asherah.”

Rachel pulled her hands away and began to pace around the bridge. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”

“You want me to help you fight your crusade, but you won’t help me with mine?”

“This is not a warship, Mac. And we shouldn’t be using it as one.”

“That sure as bugger didn’t stop you at Horesh.”

She recoiled. “That was different. I was trying to save you. It’s not the same as turning the Ark into a weapon of war. Or looking for a fight with the intention of using an Angel ship to annihilate our foes. It’d make us no better than what Jericho or any of the others would have done with my ship. We have a bigger destiny than flying around like a battleship shooting other ships out of the sky.”

We? Did she mean her and him, or herself and the bloody ship?

“I’ve made my decision, Rach. You want my help, I need your word you’ll do the same as soon as we find the planet.”

If they even could.

Rachel sighed. “We give you our word. We’ll help you.”

David cringed at her choice of words.

But he had his answer. And it meant it was time to go looking for Eden.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO

From the formation of the Asheran Confederacy there has been no end of tensions between it and Mizraim. The two factions are so different in purpose and ideology, conflict has been inevitable. Mizraim seeks to unite all the universe under a single rule, while the Confederacy supports independently run solar systems. Mizraim follows the religious doctrines of the Angels, most importantly the Covenant. Most of Asherah has cast aside these rules.

Caleb’s shuttle descended through the atmosphere of Kiriath—if atmosphere was even the right word for the toxic mass of ammonium, fluorine, and nitrogen. The planet was about the most inhospitable place he’d ever heard of, which was probably why Jericho used it for one of their hundred or so secret research stations.

He didn’t take kindly to being summoned by Apollo, especially now he was the Chairman. Still, the scientist had helped him attain that position, so when he’d said he had something of note to show him, Caleb had come.

The station’s hangar doors opened below them, allowing the shuttle to descend directly into the bay. As soon as they landed, the doors shut and the hangar began to siphon out the toxic gasses.

“Just a couple minutes,” he said to Rebekah, who sat beside him, looking pale.

He couldn’t blame her. A breath of the air outside would not be good for one’s health. Even a Smogger wouldn’t survive too long out there.

The station itself was all unmarked chrome, not a window or decoration in sight. Depressing, really, especially to someone used to the beauty of Sepharvaim. Angels, this planet was disgusting. He made a mental note to never return here once this was done.

A chime sounded inside the shuttle, telling him the hangar was now pressurized with breathable air. He hit the buzzer to open the shuttle hatch, then strode into the hangar. Already techs scurried toward his shuttle. Standard inspections and other boring minutiae.

A man in a lab coat motioned for him to follow. Best get this over with. Caleb walked behind the tech, Rebekah in tow. The man led them through a chrome hall to a lift, and they went down what he judged to be ten levels. The bowels of this planet.

The lift opened and the tech pointed to a door at the far end of the hall. Angels above, the least Apollo could have done was come to meet him in the hangar. Instead the scientist expected him to visit the lab like some common bureaucrat. He walked down the hall and almost jerked when Rebekah slipped her hand into his.

She was nervous. Another thing he couldn’t really blame her for.

He patted her on the shoulder and extricated his hand. “Why don’t you wait outside.”

Rebekah opened her mouth and stammered. Caleb wouldn’t want her to see what was ahead anyway.

He buzzed the door. It opened into a large, dimly lit room filled with workbenches. Caleb’s cybernetic eyes cut through the darkness and spotted Apollo bent over one of the tables. He walked toward the scientist, wending his way around the maze of a workspace.

A cybernetic arm twitched on a table he passed. Good thing Rebekah hadn’t come in. Poor girl would have been out of her mind.

Apollo wore a black robe with the hood pulled over his face. Ever a flare for the dramatic. He worked on a man strapped to the table. The man’s chest had been opened and Apollo had fitted him with a cybernetic core, probably designed to replace his heart and lungs. The subject’s head was strapped down, and he was gagged, but his eyes tracked Caleb. Which meant the poor bastard was awake, and from the look of it, hadn’t had any idea what he’d signed up for. He supposed that meant Apollo would dispose of the victim once the experiment was done.

One more death on their hands.

“I did what you asked. I made the announcement about the Ark.”

As expected, it had led to war between Mizraim and Asherah. The Confederacy could never allow the Sentinels to hold such a powerful technological advantage. They’d believe their only chance lay in striking before Mizraim had time to unlock the secrets of the Ark.

Apollo had all but insisted he start this intergalactic war, though Caleb had doubts it would lead to any good. Thousands were already dead, and what had it bought them? Chaos. Or maybe that was exactly what Apollo was counting on.

Apollo didn’t look up from his victim. “Good. Now Mizraim is distracted. Mobilize the Conglomerate against Jordan and get us that Ark.”

Caleb started to chew his thumb, then thought better of it, instead folding his arms across his chest. Had to look strong here. He was the head of this corporation, and it was time Apollo accepted that.

As if he’d heard the thought, Apollo suddenly looked up at him. Despite his cybernetic eyes, Caleb couldn’t quite penetrate the man’s hood. Some kind of cloaking technology? He had to suppress a shudder.

“Is there a problem?” Apollo asked, taking a step closer.

“You … You didn’t call me here to tell me this.” Yeah, great. Way to show him who’s in charge.

“No. I didn’t.” Apollo walked to another workbench and picked up a transparent dish.

In the center of the dish was a speck. Normal eyes might have missed it. Caleb focused on it, and his eyes zoomed in, magnifying it many times. It was a microchip of some kind. Not quite a nanochip, but almost.

“My latest creation. A psionic-blocking implant.”

A what? Caleb took an involuntary step back. Jericho—and likely QI, as well—had long experimented with tech to protect people from telepaths and empaths. Results had never been satisfactory. And now, without warning, Apollo had something that could do it?

It should have thrilled Caleb.

But the way Apollo was looking at him was anything but encouraging.

“Nanobots will build one inside your brain. The chip will prevent any Psych from gaining access to your most valuable assets. You are, after all, now the Chairman of a megacorp.”

Angels above, he wanted to put that thing in Caleb’s head.

“I … I don’t think that will be necessary. I have security to protect me from …”

Apollo strode toward him with undeniable purpose and grabbed his arm. “Can you really take that chance?”

Caleb’s heart raced. He didn’t have to do this. He could say no. Just refuse.

Almost against his own will he found himself nodding. His arms shook and he focused on stopping the trembling. Apollo switched his grip to the back of Caleb’s neck, then turned his head.

“Wait …” Caleb moaned.

The scientist injected something into Caleb’s ear. It started as a sudden shock, then his whole ear canal tingled. Then he felt nothing out of the ordinary.

His eyes switched off for a moment, like something had interfered with the signal.

For a heartbeat he was left in darkness. Just long enough for the edge of panic to set in.

And then things returned to normal, and Apollo stood across from him.

“It’s done.”

Caleb rubbed his ear and stalked out of the lab.

He grabbed Rebekah’s hand and ignored her questioning look. They were leaving this damn planet.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE

December 3rd

A part of me admires Asherah for abandoning the Covenant. Certainly, any thought of a cyborg frightens me. Waller showed me visions of that—I have no idea if they were real or products of Sentinel propaganda—and it produced a visceral reaction in me I couldn’t control. I try to remind myself I was as indoctrinated to fear cyborgs as the rest of mankind.

Rachel was right, David decided. It was like the pathways of the Conduit bent around his intended destination. They curved so subtly that, were he not watching for it, he would never have noticed. The Conduit tunnels stretched out in his mind and he reached deeper and deeper, seeking a way through.

They’d been circling the system, the supposed location of Eden itself, for hours, as he swept past one misdirection after another. But there had to be a way in. Rachel was sure of it, and the longer he followed the winding paths, the more he became convinced of it, as well. No one worked so hard to hide something unless that something was worth the effort.

Eden.

For thirty-one centuries mankind’s homeworld had been a myth, lost to the ages. And Rachel had tasked him with uncovering it. Hard not to let pride creep into his thoughts. He had to keep reminding himself he was doing this for Mizraim. If he found this planet, Rachel would use the Ark to help win the war against Asherah.

He was doing what he had to. That was the only reason.

He shut his eyes, letting himself feel the way. Eyes could be fooled. The infinite colors shimmering all around you could mask a possible route. The Conduit was a series of endlessly branching wormholes, constantly wrapping back on itself, but always shifting you forward in time. Making sure you never wound up somewhere before you left. The greater the pilot, the faster you could arrive somewhere. Distance became a secondary concern to skill. A skilled pilot could arrive at a destination in hours that might take an amateur a day or more to reach.

And David was one of the best. He could navigate faster than anyone he knew. He knew he could find the way.

He just had to let go, let his mind reach out on its own, freed from conscious control.

It was easier said than done. For all his practice as a Psych, even his performance varied. And right now, drawn as he was to the front, every pathway tried to lead him there. His heart yearned to join the battle, and his subconscious tried to show him the way.

But the only way there was through a less direct route. First, he had to find Eden.

Maybe, as long as he kept trying to convince himself that wasn’t his true mission, he never would. Could he abandon his mission to save it? Indulge in vanity and allow himself to become the man who led humanity back to Eden, as Rachel would have cast him? If he trod down that path, was there a way back from it?

The danger of becoming a messiah was falling for your own legend.

He knew the danger. He could avoid it. And so he swept around and around, diving ever closer to his destination. She needed him to become the one to find it.

He kept his eyes closed. Tried to focus all of his essence on Eden.

Earth, she had called it. A blue-green paradise, stories said. Humanity had been born there. The Exodus had spread the Races of Man across the Local Group, but it all traced back here. Everything came back to Eden. When the Adversary attacked, mankind’s destiny was changed forever. Back then, humanity had barely managed to leave their own solar system—only unmanned, long range probes reached out to distant stars. Hard to even imagine life before the Conduit.

And the Angels had come. They had opened not only the entire galaxy to humanity, but many galaxies. They had planted people on a million worlds throughout the universe and commanded them to breed so often nothing could threaten mankind with extinction again.

And they had forever denied humans return to Earth.

David’s eyes opened. The passageway was coming. He could feel it. The Conduit rushed past it, forcing any ship along a route that always put the one entrance behind them. And you couldn’t look back in the Conduit.

The passage zipped right past him. He reached into the hologram and jerked his hand, pulling a hard, sudden turn with the Ark. The ship shrieked as it brushed the edges of the Conduit.

“What the void are you doing?” Phoebe shouted.

The Ark swung around and darted down the hidden pathway. A heartbeat. Then another.

And the Gate was there. He jumped the Ark into normal space.

David rose from the chair and turned to Rachel. “We’re here.”

The entire crew stood on the bridge, and all were silent. Rachel sat in the chair and directed the ship past one planet and another, until at last she fell into orbit around a small world covered in a blue ocean.

She waved her hand and the screen zoomed in on the world below them. Vast stretches of land bore scars like someone had cut it up with a laser scalpel. But other regions were green, overrun with forest.

“Radiation is within tolerable levels,” Phoebe said. “Signs of numerous vast cities dot the planet, all in ruins. No signs of intelligent life, though flora and fauna are abundant.”

“It’s not a wasteland.” Rachel’s voice was barely a whisper.

David imagined everyone echoed her thoughts. The Adversary was supposed to have made this place uninhabitable. Despite the obvious scars running along the world, life flourished here.

David scratched his head. “Either the planet has recovered over the last three thousand years—”

“Or they lied to us about how bad it was,” Rachel said.

Why would they lie? Why take mankind from here if the world remained? “Maybe …” David wasn’t sure what to think anymore. “Maybe they were protecting us from the Adversary.”

“Maybe,” Rachel said. “Or they had another agenda. Either way, we have to go down there. It’s the only way we can be sure.”

“Someone has to the stay with the ship,” Leah said. “And I suppose it had better be me. I don’t see Rachel staying here.”

David took a step toward the Amphie. Something had been bothering her for a long time. They’d talked since he was rescued, but it wasn’t the same. Not like it had been on the Logos. She was far away, and he couldn’t bridge the distance. Was the lass disappointed in him? One day soon he’d need to have a chat with her. She meant too much to him to let her suffer like this.

“Good idea,” Rachel said, before David could object to Leah’s plan. He knew Rachel had taught Leah and Phoebe to control the ship, but David didn’t like this plan. “The rest of us will go down in the shuttle. Be prepared. We have no idea what we’ll find on that planet.”

He grunted. “We might need a medic.”

“Well, we know there are no people,” Rachel said. “If we need her, we’ll call for Leah.”

David sighed. Rachel was right about one thing—he needed to see Eden now, for himself. It wasn’t destroyed, which meant … He didn’t know what it meant.

“Are you sure you want—” he started to ask Leah.

“Yeah, go on. I’m fine.”

Knight coughed. “Let’s just do this.”

David sighed. Fine.

But before he went down there, he was going to need one more thing. Despite all he had done, his suit could mean the difference between life and death—not only for him, but for Rachel. Whether he deserved it or not, he had put his uniform back on.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR

The First Commandment tells us that humans are not meant to alter themselves with cybernetics or genetic engineering. The Angels, however, clearly reengineered mankind to create the Races. And they altered themselves with cybernetics. So maybe Asherah is right about everything. Maybe the Angels just tried to cast themselves above us, and this fear we have of cybernetics is totally misplaced.

Being back on Sepharvaim had brought welcome relief to Caleb. His experiences on Kiriath had so unsettled his stomach he hadn’t even wanted to take Rebekah on the shuttle—which seemed to shock the girl. She was still scared, he knew. Not half as much as he was, though. She had no idea Apollo had put something in Caleb’s brain.

Angels above, he was off rotation to have allowed that. It was supposed to block telepathy, but God only knew what else it might do to him. What side effects it could have. Jericho had volunteers for testing things like this. They did not test cybernetics on board members.

Of course, his discomfort was not at all eased by the Redeemer now waiting outside his office. Here he was, a cyborg, about to meet with a Redeemer. If the man had the slightest inkling what Caleb was, he wouldn’t just wash Caleb’s sins away—he’d murder him in his own office. Redeemers were like that. Real assholes.

“Send him in,” he said, at last.

It was important to keep people like that waiting, let them know he wasn’t afraid of them. Even if he was afraid. It just didn’t do to let on.

The Redeemer wore a long coat, emblazoned with the symbol of a man on bent knee. Complete subservience to Angel doctrine. Like a good little dog.

But not one to be underestimated. The man was muscular. He could probably break Caleb in half with his bare hands. Which was why Caleb clutched a MAG under the table in his new office.

Rebekah stood nearby, and he’d made sure she had a MAG too, hidden against her inner thigh. He’d had her wear a flowing dress for this, though she normally wore trousers. Better to conceal the weapon.

The Redeemer walked over to Caleb’s desk and stared down at him.

Caleb made sure to wear an obviously fake smile. “Jeremiah Jordan. Welcome to Jericho Corp.”

Disdain oozed from the man’s face like he was looking at a rotting Akeldaman slug carcass. “Gavet. I hope you’ll do better in this position than your last two predecessors.”

Cute. Keese had been brought down by the Redeemers themselves for experiments violating the First Commandment—experiments Caleb had since taken over—and Mathison was murdered by the Sons of Cain. Possibly at Apollo’s behest.

Caleb smiled, wondering what Jordan would do if he admitted to inheriting Keese’s projects as well as his Chair. Probably die of apoplexy. “Indeed,” he said. “As I hope you do your family name more honor than your sister has.”

If it was possible, Jeremiah’s face grew sterner. He pressed his palms against the desk, leaning forward like he intended to intimidate Caleb. “You asked me here to discuss the problem. You said the Conglomerate must act together to retrieve the Ark. So speak.”

“Your sister has vanished, Jordan. She’s taken the Angel’s Ark with her, the most powerful, most dangerous Angel relic ever discovered. And she seems intent to keep it for herself.”

“The Ark has no business in human hands at all.”

Caleb smiled in a way he hoped was placating, not mocking, despite his feelings. “The Conglomerate can decide what to do with the Ark once we have it. But we can agree it does not belong in the sole custody of Rachel Jordan.”

Jeremiah gritted his teeth and nodded. “We can. Sadly, her blasphemies go deeper.”

This should be good. What could the girl have possibly come up with to top stealing the Angel’s Ark? Had she opened a door to hell itself?

“We captured a Seeker of Eden and I’ve been interrogating him. He claims Rachel has been using the Ark to locate Eden. This egregious breach of Angel law cannot be tolerated, Gavet. She must be recovered before she commits a crime from which mankind would never recover.”

Caleb blinked his eyes, trying to cover his shock. Eden? He had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing. Eden! Angels above, the girl thought big. First she’d stolen the Ark, now she was trying to uncover the lost, possibly mythical homeworld of mankind. It was almost comical. In fact, it was ludicrous, made more so by the deathly serious air of her own brother.

He glanced at the picture of his wife and children on his desk, grateful his family was not nearly so dysfunctional as Rachel’s seemed. Her father was one of the leaders of the Redeemers, Caleb had learned not long ago. A hierophant. She’d cut ties with him long ago, of course, but it was still too rich, too perfect.

“Allow me to look into the matter,” he said, keeping his expression blank. “I will be in touch as soon as I have more information.”

His desk creaked as Jeremiah leaned further forward on it. “This matter must be handled with complete discretion, Gavet. We cannot have it get out to the public what she’s after. The Seekers are a fringe group we’ve been hunting down for centuries. The masses would only be befuddled by their lies.”

“Trust me, Jordan. One thing I know is discretion.”

The Redeemer nodded, then left.

Caleb burst out laughing the moment the door closed. “Pompous ass.”

“Eden?” Rebekah asked. “Is it possible?”

“I have no idea. But I’m almost starting to admire Ms. Jordan. Her brother, less so.”

He contacted Apollo on the Mazzaroth, and a minute later the man’s face filled the screen on his desk.

“I’ve found Jordan—or at least, I know what she’s looking for. She’s convinced she can use the Ark to find Eden itself. Void, maybe she can. If we trace these Seekers she’s working with, I’ll bet we can locate her.”

Apollo was silent.

Not a good sign. Had he been wrong to contact the man with so rough a lead? Caleb shook himself. Why the void was he questioning himself about contacting one of his employees? How did Apollo have this hold over him? Caleb was the Chairman for God’s sake. It made him one of the most important men in the universe, and he was letting this scientist on a toxic planet a galaxy away intimidate him.

“Prepare the Conglomerate strike force,” Apollo said at last.

“For where? We haven’t found them yet.”

“The Ark will show her the way to Eden, if it hasn’t already. And we will find them there. I will send you the coordinates.”

Wait, what?

The Mazzaroth cut off.

A moment later he received a coded message detailing a system on an arm of the Milky Way. And the Conduit route to reach it.

Caleb’s whole body felt cold. Apollo knew the way to Eden. Who was this man? A chill ran down his spine, and all he could do was sit and stare at the message.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-FIVE

For thirty-one centuries, Eden has been a fable, a myth to tell mankind where we come from. This planet, this Earth, is so far removed from most people, they could not even imagine ever seeing it. To tell someone I’d seen Eden would likely sound to them like I was saying I’d been to heaven itself. Beyond belief. That will change.

Skyscrapers dominated the city. Though the buildings had nothing on the size of those found on New Rome or even Gehenna, the ivy and moss covering many of them created the illusion of a massive rainforest. David set the shuttle down among them, in what had once been a city in the northern hemisphere.

Flora had retaken so much of the planet, it was hard to find a clear patch to land on. In the end, he landed in what had once been a street. Deer watched their group from the distance, more curious than afraid. Animals that had never seen human beings.

“Angels above,” Phoebe said. “It’s really Eden, isn’t it?”

“Aye,” David said, not sure he believed it himself. The ruins, their apparent age, made the conclusion obvious … if still hard to accept.

Rachel pointed at a circular tower in the distance. “The Ark’s records are pretty sparse, but I think that’s a war archive. Maybe it can tell us about the Adversary.”

David suppressed a shudder. The Adversary wasn’t something you just went looking into. It was the bogie to frighten children to sleep at night. It was the force in the darkness, beyond the void, waiting to prey on humanity. Without the Angels to protect them, mankind could never hope to face such a threat. It’s what they were all raised to believe, and despite all that had happened, he supposed he still did.

“I’m reading a signal on the continent directly south of this one,” Phoebe said. “It could indicate some kind of power source still running. I should probably take the shuttle and go check it out.”

Rachel glanced back at her. “We have no idea what might be on this planet. Splitting up could be dangerous.”

“Aye, but we also don’t have all the time in the universe, lass,” David said. “Take Knight.”

“Right, because I need a damn bodyguard, David.”

Knight said nothing, but David could feel the man watching Rachel. Just as well to send him away.

“He’s right,” Rachel said. “David’s here, Knight. I’ll be fine. Help her find whatever’s down there and let us know.”

Knight sighed and strode back toward the shuttle.

Phoebe muttered something David didn’t catch.

“They could probably use some time alone to work through things, anyway,” Rachel said when the pair were out of earshot.

David wasn’t so sure. He was no empath, but he could see tension brewing between Phoebe and the Gehennan. Still, Rachel did have a way with these things. Maybe she was right.

It took several minutes to hike toward the building Rachel called a war archive.

The tower was perhaps ten stories tall. The doors had long since fallen away, and plants had overgrown the lobby.

A low growl echoed through the room when they entered. In the corner, a pair of wolves shifted. Angels had recorded the genetic material from every known animal on Eden. They’d recreated the fauna on other planets throughout the universe. Odd to think these wolves were the true source, the real animals rather than descendants of clones.

David drew his pulse pistol and fired a shot in their direction. The wolves yelped and scampered away.

Rachel groaned, rubbing her head.

David was at her side in a moment. “What is it, lass?”

“I don’t know … You didn’t hear anything?”

He shook his head. Other than the wolves, he’d heard nothing. David brushed his hand along her cheek. She was caked in a chill sweat. “Rach?”

She blinked rapidly, and swayed on her feet. “Nothing. Nothing, I thought I … I’m just excited. And I can’t hear the Ark. I don’t know, on the planet I guess I’m too far away. I … I still felt it on Horesh …”

Bloody void, was she going through some kind of withdrawal from the psychic connection? Could she have become addicted to the damn Ark? He pulled Rachel close and held her head against his chest, trying not to let her see the concern on his face. She’d probably feel it anyway, but he couldn’t help that.

Rachel pointed at something over his shoulder. “Look.” She pulled free and stumbled over to a pair of sliding doors with a slight wedge open between them. “This must have been a lift shaft. We need to get down there.”

“You think the records were underground?”

“That would make sense. They most likely considered an underground vault the safest. Such a place would have been more likely to withstand orbital bombardment.”

Aye. David slipped his fingers between the doors and pulled. The metal shrieked as it slid open. He pushed the other one back into the wall too. The shaft was deep, deeper than he could see the bottom of. He tapped a button on his suit, turning on his wrist light.

“Five stories down, I’d wager.”

At the bottom the lift had fallen. It looked like it ran on a cable rather than mag rails. The cable had snapped, and the lift was crushed down there.

Rachel’s warmth was right by his shoulder, looking down. “You could use your grav-net to jump down,” she said.

“Aye. But how would we get back up? There have to be stairs. If the place ever lost power they’d want a way to escape, right?”

“All right, so we’ll jump down,” Rachel said. “Then we find the stairs to climb back up.”

Was she serious? “Lass, you can’t wait the extra five minutes to find the staircase?”

Rachel looked like she was about to say something, then bit it back. She shrugged, and stalked off searching for another way down.

David could understand her excitement. This was Eden, after all. Still, he didn’t want her getting reckless.

“I found something,” she said a few minutes later. Rachel indicated a doorway that revealed a series of staircases leading down. She took off downward before he could respond. He followed her, pulse pistol in hand.

Downstairs they found what looked to have been some kind of communications station. It was pitch black, the only light source coming from David’s suit.

Flat monitors rested on the wall and a dozen others sat atop rusted metal desks. A thick cloud of dust kicked up as Rachel walked around the room, and she started coughing. David’s Smogger genes helped him filter the air, so it didn’t bother him.

Rachel walked toward a desk, then stumbled and fell to her knees. She looked up, her face pale. And she screamed. The sound echoed off the metal walls and reverberated through the floors above them.

David dashed to her side, and she threw her arms around him.

“Mac!”

“What is it? What happened?”

She trembled in his arms, and for the life of him, he had no idea what was wrong. All he could do was hold her close and pray she’d be all right. And that wasn’t enough. He was supposed to protect the lass. To keep her safe from any threat. And now her connection to that ship—or her withdrawal from it—was hurting her.

He felt a ripple pressing on his psionic nerves, like the beginning of a migraine building behind his eyes. A wave that came and went. A psychic disturbance coming off Rachel?

“I saw … A ghost?” she mumbled.

Say what now? “There’s no such thing as ghosts, Rach.”

“Can’t you feel it? Can’t you hear them?”

He shook his head. The only thing he felt was a buzzing building in his head. It was like spending too much time in the Conduit, frying his psionic nerves. Most people couldn’t understand how draining that could be for a Psych.

He pulled her tighter against his chest. “All right, lass. We’ve got to get you out of here.”

“No! Mac, they’re trying to tell me. They’re trying to show me what happened. They need me. Everyone needs me.” She pushed away from him and scrambled over to a panel on the wall.

With her shirt she brushed away millennia of dust covering the screen. It was some kind of display, long-dead.

David’s voice caught in his throat, and he almost wanted to weep, to see Rachel so obsessed. Driven off rotation by a quest he’d let her—enabled her—to pursue. God forgive him for ever bringing her here. She wanted to save humanity from itself, but maybe Rachel needed to be saved from herself.

“It must be because I’m an empath,” she mumbled.

David sighed, feeling a shudder run through his chest, and slunk into a chair. The metal creaked, but still supported him. “What is?”

“Think about it, Mac. Living minds create psionic energy fields, right?”

He scratched his head and shut his eyes. Basic Psych theory. All living beings created energy through their thoughts, and Psychs could pick up on that energy. Telepaths could read actual thoughts, Empaths could pick up emotions, and ESPs, like himself, could read patterns to envision possible futures.

“So open your mind to it.”

“There’s no one here, lass.”

“But there was. Seven billion people died on this planet in a matter of hours, Mac. All the pain, that psychic energy, what if it didn’t dissipate? Don’t you feel anything?”

Was that even possible? That her ghosts might be psionic impressions left behind by the murder of three quarters of a planet? David shut his eyes and tried to do as she asked. Instead of fighting the pressure on his psionic nerves, he opened himself to it.

Slowly, images formed in his mind. Visions of things, of the people who had been here. They drifted about the room like phantoms, running from console to console, screaming in panic about the ship closing in on Earth.

“You can see it, can’t you?” Rachel said. She grabbed his arm, and he tried to push the vision at her, connect to her mind. Sometimes two Psychs could share such things.

“Mars is gone,” he heard someone say. “And they’ve moved in on the Lunar colony.”

“There are half a million people up there,” someone else shouted. “We’ve got to evacuate them.”

The screen displayed a ship, though he could barely see it. Jet black against the dark of space, and with razor-sharp wings, like an Angel. Like the Ark. For an instant, the feed showed plasma streams escaping the Adversary ship. Then it cut off.

“We’ve lost contact with the moon,” a female voice said. “The entire fleet is gone. It’s too late to do anything for them. We have to prepare an evacuation of this planet.”

“We’re decades away from being ready for that.”

“Get people on the long range probes. Get them away from Earth …”

“Nuke the bastards!”

“The fleet already tried that. The aliens shot them down.”

David was no empath, but even he could feel the terrible, sickening fear seeping off the so-called ghosts. It was what had been left behind. Three thousand years of terror, of horror remained here.

Rachel collapsed against him, moaning. God, this place would poison her. A planet’s worth of pain and death lingered here, and it was creeping inside her.

It would poison any Psych, sooner or later. Was that why the Angels drove mankind away? Was that why they hid the planet? Because with so much pain, it would never be inhabitable again? Except, Knight and Phoebe seemed to be fine. So it was only Psychs who were affected.

He had to get Rachel back to the Ark. Someone like her didn’t belong on this planet. Maybe no one did.

He called the second shuttle down remotely.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX

When mankind realizes that Eden was a real place, and that the Angels lied to us about how bad it was, everything will change. They will come here in droves to see the place of our origin. And maybe, at long last, they will begin to question the Angels. It’s that first question that proves the hardest. Once a person stops taking everything they’ve been told for granted, once they begin thinking for themselves, their eyes will open.

Rachel awakened on the shuttle, her head pounding, and her body trembling with fear set deep inside her. Terror unlike anything she had known. A beautiful horror trapped forever in the moment of the death of an entire world.

She glanced outside to take a last look at the city spread around her. The place was too empty, but not silent. Birds chirped everywhere, thousands and thousands of them. The whole planet had been taken back by nature. Eerie and revitalizing, in a way. Three thousand years had healed this world, and mankind could at last end the Exodus … except for Psychs. Eden could support Norms, she could use the Ark to lead them here. But she was no longer certain she should.

“You know why they did it, don’t you?” David said.

Rachel folded her arms and stared out the window. The Angels had denied mankind their homeworld. Did the reason even matter? It should have been humanity’s choice.

And yet, to think the Angels had really, truly created the Exodus to protect mankind, just like they said they had … It left her nauseated. Could she have been wrong about them? Was it possible?

No. No! Whatever their reasons, they had created a totalitarian regime. There was no excuse for the physical and ideological domination of another species.

She tapped her comm. “Jordan to Knight.”

“Knight here.”

“We’re going back to the Ark. A dangerous level of psionic energy remains on that planet. Are you all right?”

“We’re fine. We haven’t noticed anything, really. Except something interfering with the scanners. Phoebe needs more time to locate the source of the signal.”

“All right. Be careful.”

The comm clicked off.

She shut her eyes and tried to rest as David flew them home. The moment they broke orbit, she began to feel the familiar presence of the Ark in her mind. It must have picked up on the lingering fear that had suffused her, because it began to feed such terror back at her.

The shuttle docked in the hangar, and Rachel rushed out. She had to get to the bridge and calm her Ark down.

“Rachel, wait a minute, lass,” David said.

She glanced back at him, but kept walking. She could feel the Ark fully reconnecting to her mind now she was aboard. Making her whole again. She wasn’t going to listen to David demand she take the ship into battle right now.

“I can’t reach Leah. Something’s not right.”

Rachel almost walked right into a pair of men in combat armor. It was similar to Sentinel form-fitting armor, but they wore sharply angled helmets and had the QI logo over their hearts.

“On the ground, now!” one shouted.

Rachel went for her MAG, but her attackers already had theirs drawn. She’d never get it out in time.

A pulse blast shot past her head and one QI soldier flew backward. A split second later another pulse took the other one.

David tackled her to the ground as more QI troops poured into the hallway. He launched himself up and flung one down by his legs.

How the void had QI even found them? How would anyone know where to find Eden? Could they have followed the Ark through the Conduit? It sounded impossible, but here they were.

Another tried to pin David’s weapon hand. David twisted the man’s arm backward, and Rachel heard it crack.

“Jordan to Knight!” Rachel called into the comm. “We’ve been boarded! Knight, come in—”

A QI security man kicked her head and the comm winked out. White light filled her eyes and her ears rang. The ship was spinning, pulsing through her mind. Its voice spoke to her, warning of countless intruders swarming through her hull. They buzzed through her corridors like an army of ants, clogging her hallways.

With a groan she rolled over, staring at the ceiling. She blinked, trying to get her vision to clear. She couldn’t hear anything except the warnings the Ark blared through their shared mind. She turned to the side and saw MAG rounds bouncing off David’s suit.

A dozen QI troopers lay sprawled around the hall, some shot, some with broken bones. More and more filed in, coming from all sides.

Hands roughly jerked her to her feet. Her legs gave out beneath her, but she felt someone dragging her by the armpits.

David caught another QI trooper in a headlock and flung him into a charging man. Where was his pulse pistol? Had he dropped it?

A QI officer shot at him with an electrolaser. David jerked another man in front of him. The victim bore the brunt of the hit, but still David stumbled back.

God, David.

She tried to call out to him, but her throat wouldn’t work. Her words slurred over a thick tongue. Was she just dazed, or did she have a concussion? It was probably a good sign she could still think clearly enough to ask the question.

More officers tackled David. A third. A fourth.

Quasar Industries had come at them with an army.

She heard a MAG retort. Her hearing was coming back.

Rachel dug in her heels and shoved one of the men holding her. He stumbled away and she threw herself onto the other man. Her weight barreled them both to the ground. His armor would prevent her blows from doing any serious harm, so she grabbed his head and banged it against the deck. Repeatedly.

A hand jerked her to her feet.

“Run, lass!”

David.

He shoved her down the corridor and she ran.

They were taking her ship. Her Ark. They were in her hallways. They had entered her bridge. She could feel them, like a gnawing rash eating away at her.

“Get them out! Get them off me!”

David shoved her down another hallway.

Another security team formed up in front of them. Before Rachel could even react, David had pushed her around a corner. The echo of David’s pulse pistol filled the hallway. He must have recovered it.

Men and women screamed.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her back the way they had been heading. Four bodies now splattered the hallway.

Her hallway.

They were bleeding all over her.

They were trying to take her!

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN

And I have to believe, with open eyes, mankind will realize the Angels were not messengers of God at all. I am increasingly convinced these beings are mere aliens who have preyed on human weakness, doubt, and gullibility to cast themselves as divine. They came to us with technology maybe millions of years beyond our own, and we thought them gods.

Rainforest covered much of the southern continent. Knight had never seen anything like it. He’d thought the Ekron Conservatory a forest. It was nothing. Greenery surrounded him on all sides, more brilliant and more varied than even the overgrowth of the northern continent. Bright blue flowers, some half a meter wide, opened around them.

Phoebe had detected the signal near here, at an old compound. The degree of underbrush had meant they had to land on a beach and walk over a kilometer to reach this place.

“It’s kind of beautiful,” she said, staring at a flower. “Strangely alien, too.”

“If this is really Eden, it’s not alien at all.”

“Huh. Yup, yup. I guess I’m more alien than these flowers.”

“You?”

She quirked a smile. “I’m a Cold-worlder. I might be human, but I’m not exactly the kind of human who first came from this place.”

“Neither am I.” Neither was practically anyone still alive. Norms were only one of the eleven Races.

Sweat streamed off her face and she mopped her brow with her arm. “Knight. You’re not the kind of person from anywhere.”

What the void did that mean? Was she referring to his unusual reflexes, or was that some kind of insult? He was never going to understand this woman.

Maybe it was a waste of time to try.

And yet, some misguided part of him truly wanted her, wanted all the crew on the Ark, he supposed, to like him. Why in the holy universe he should care about any of them, other than Rachel, was beyond him. Still, here he was, wondering what the Icie thought about him. He’d gone off rotation.

“Phoebe … Sorry, if I said the wrong things back on Ekron.”

She turned to face him, her eyebrows raised. “If you said the wrong things?” She stared at him, open-mouthed for a moment. “Angels above, you’re serious.” She folded her arms across her chest and stepped closer to him, looking him right in the eye. “Okay, then. Yes. You said the wrong thing. Repeatedly. In great variety and with such flair I almost admire your ability. In fact, I’ve rarely ever seen someone with that degree of skill at verbal missteps. I can only imagine your training in ninja school involved long hours of complex meditation on putting your foot in your mouth. Probably numerous positions to achieve the end result.”

He folded his arms, mimicking her. “Putting my foot … What does that even mean?”

“It means … It means …” She threw up her hands and started walking away. “It means this planet is too Angels-damned hot and we should just find the signal and get out of here. The heat may not bother you, but I’m dripping sweat.”

“You look good sweaty.”

She paused for one second, started to turn to him, then stopped and kept walking.

Knight watched her ass. She was pretty damn …

A man stepped out from behind a building. He jabbed Phoebe in the ribs with a long staff and she stumbled backward. She went for her pulse pistol. The man knocked it out of her hand with his staff.

Knight flung a throwing knife into the attacker’s face. More men and women streamed from around the buildings. Each had a fighting staff that extended with a twist.

He’d seen these things before. The Lazarus Group–the people who had found the Sefer on Gehenna—had fought with this kind of weapon. What the void were these people doing here? How had they found Eden, and why hadn’t Rachel detected them?

A man charged him, swinging his staff. Knight twisted out of the way and broke the attacker’s nose.

He jumped onto a ledge and ran along it, then leapt off, kicking another Lazarus grunt in the face. Knight landed in a crouch.

Two men had engaged Phoebe, but she was holding her own.

More charged him. They were everywhere. The signal must have been a plant. An ambush, probably designed to lure Rachel right into their grasp. They’d want the Ark back from her.

Instead they’d gotten him.

Poor bastards.

Knight flipped into the air and pulled knives from his thigh sheaths. He flung a pair of them. One took a man in the throat. The other hit a woman in the shoulder.

A redheaded woman swung her staff at his head. He ducked, stepped behind her, and landed a tight hook to her kidney. The woman dropped like a rock. Another man jabbed at him. They were working together, focusing on him.

They sent just enough men to distract Phoebe, while two dozen of the fools chased after him. Knight flipped over another one and kicked him in the back. Even with his speed, he was spending almost all his time dodging the numerous staff strikes.

They knew to focus on him.

They must have known who he was.

He caught one man in the ribs with a knife-hand strike and stepped behind him, keeping the doubled-over foe between him and the others.

“Jordan to Knight! We’ve been boarded! Knight. come in—”

Rachel. What the void? He tapped his comm. “Rach—”

A staff struck him on the side of the head. There was a moment of shock, blinding pain.

It was in his head. Pain was in the mind. That was all.

He was lying on the ground. Fight through it.

“Phoebe … Run! Go!”

He pushed himself up. Another staff took him in the ribs. Broken. His every breath hurt.

But he knew that pain, too. He’d been taught to keep fighting despite it.

He jabbed a knife into an attacker’s eye and bore the man down, then jerked his arm out, flinging the knife into another goon’s face.

Knight rose slowly, clutching his ribs. The world was spinning too quickly. His vision was blurry.

“Phoebe, they’re in danger!”

He could see her, hesitating on the edge of the ruins. Waiting for him.

“Go, damn you! Save them!”

She couldn’t help him. There were too many, too well prepared for this. He’d been a fool. He’d let himself get distracted. He’d been so worried about what she thought about him, about what any of them thought. And he’d let these fools sneak up on him. Small consolation the poor little shits got him instead of Rachel.

Knight grit his teeth. He crushed a man’s throat and broke another’s arm. He swept one’s feet. The motion made the ground spin, and Knight lost his balance, tumbling down.

A woman lunged with a staff. Knight tried to fend it off, keep it from his head. Instead the staff broke his arm. A lance of lightning shot along his forearm where he felt the bone crack. He roared, trying to get a hold on the pain.

Angels above, he missed his kyoketsu. And his sword.

Another staff cracked him across the face.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT

Am I certain about the Angels? No. The point is, I am willing to ask the questions. And that is all I want for humanity—that they be willing to start investigating the truth. That they not blindly believe whatever they are told, simply because they have faith in the speaker. We trust our elders, and they trust their elders, and so forth, back through the ages. But if we do not examine the truth for ourselves, draw our own conclusions, this is blind faith.

God only knew what was wrong with Rachel. He’d hoped the residual fear on Eden would flush out as soon as they left. She’d be fine. She had to be.

David ushered her down another hallway, into the lab Leah had turned into the med bay. For that matter, David had no idea where Leah was, either. He prayed she lived, but she hadn’t answered any attempt to contact her. For the moment, he was going to assume the lass was captured, but alive. If these QI buggers had hurt her, he’d fry them.

Rachel kept mumbling about people crawling inside her, invaders. She’d gotten too damn attached to this Ark, that was it. He’d seen it coming and had done nothing. Which made him twice the fool for it.

He grabbed her face between his hands. “Listen to me, lass. Can you hear me?”

She nodded, her eyes clear for a moment.

“Good lass. Now we have to take the bridge, right? From there you can use the command chair and maybe we can drive the buggers off.”

She nodded again, then brushed her hair from her face. “I think … I think … They can’t use the chair because the Ark is bonded to me. They’re … I can feel them trying to find a way to hack in. To gain control of me.” She shook herself. “Of the Ark, I mean.”

For a second, David wondered if severing the Ark’s connection to Rachel wouldn’t be best for all concerned. Seeing her like this, losing herself, was like being eaten alive. Like watching a part of himself rotting and knowing no way to stop the process.

He held her face tighter, then kissed her forehead. “Please, Rach. I need you to focus for me, all right? Can you tell me another way to get to the bridge?”

She blinked, then threw her arms around his neck. “Don’t let them take the Ark, Mac!”

Oh, shite.

He wasn’t sure he could stop QI by himself, but he supposed he had to try. “All right, lass. All right. There has to be a commander here running the show. If we can take him down it might give us a chance to regain control.”

Rachel nodded. “There’s the lift. They probably don’t know about it.”

“Good.” He pressed a MAG into her hands. Normally he’d never even consider arming a civilian, much less one in such a state. But that gun might be the only thing that would keep her alive. He couldn’t well leave her here. For all he knew, QI would kill her to sever her connection to the Ark. “Are you with me, Rach? Can you use this?”

She nodded again, and stood straighter.

Angels preserve them. The smart thing to do here was surrender, but he had no way of knowing if they’d spare Rachel if he did that. And he wouldn’t let them harm her. He’d die to protect her if he had to.

“You stay behind me,” he said. “Just guide me toward the lift.”

She put a hand on his shoulder and did as he asked, nudging him forward. Bloody thing was nigh invisible, it merged so seamlessly with the floor. Rachel cupped her hands, and the lift disc detached from the floor and began to carry them upward.

The Ark jolted.

Rachel screamed and fell to her knees.

In an instant he knelt beside her, hand on her back. “What happened, lass?”

“They’re shooting at me!”

“Who is?”

“I … I … Jericho Corp. Jericho cruisers are firing on us and the QI ship.”

She could feel what was happening outside the ship. She wasn’t even in the bloody chair and she could feel what the ship sensed. David had no idea what to do about that.

And Jericho? Had QI brought the whole bloody Conglomerate with them? Did everyone know where to find Eden, now? What had they unleashed by coming here?

The ship jerked again and Rachel recoiled, almost stumbling off the lift. David grabbed her and pulled her into his arms.

“I can’t raise the kinetic shields without the chair.” She was damn near sobbing.

“It’s all right—”

“No! They’re shooting at me! Missiles and MAG rounds and they’re sending boarding pods. Tiny, tiny ants crawling on me, trying to get inside! They’re everywhere—”

David shook her by the shoulders as the lift settled into place. “Look at me, Rach! Look into my eyes. It will be all right.” He was not going to lose her to this. He couldn’t say where he’d gone wrong. They never should have uncovered this Ark. Maybe the Redeemers had been right all along. Maybe mankind was not meant for such things. “This attack gives me the distraction I need to take the bridge, right? We’ll take the bridge, then you can raise the shields.”

Her breaths came so fast he feared she’d hyperventilate. But she nodded, clutching her MAG in a death grip.

Bloody void.

He rose, activated his helmet, then peeked around the corner. A pair of QI guards watched the bridge door. They spotted him instantly and unleashed a torrent of MAG rounds. His suit would absorb the impact of such rounds, but eventually they’d wear through it, especially if the kinetic shields gave out.

David rolled around the corner and came up firing. A pulse took one QI officer in the chest, scorching his armor. He fell, even as David shot the next man.

“Rachel!”

She scurried down the hall behind him.

Now or never.

He buzzed the bridge door and rushed through, gun out. Almost immediately MAG rounds clanked off his armor. The HUD in his helmet displayed his shielding gauge, nearly bled dry. He ran forward, elbowing one QI guard while firing a burst of pulses into the commander. The unfortunate man flew backward through the air and impacted the bridge screen—or the wall that could become a screen when Rachel wanted.

David spun and shot another guard.

MAG rounds rushed around the room. Rachel had emptied a full burst into another guard. QI armor was good, but not as good as a Sentinel suit. The woman Rachel shot collapsed. One of the supersonic rounds had pierced her suit. Probably sent her organs into hydrostatic shock.

David slapped magnetic restraints on the man he’d elbowed.

Rachel slipped into the chair. A moment later she reached into the air and flexed her hand, and the lighting changed. “I’ve sealed the bridge.”

It was a start.

But they still had to find Leah.

And Knight and Phoebe were still down on that planet.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE

Asherah has abandoned any faith in the old ways, and they are called villains by the Sentinels. They are called khapiru by the Redeemers. Children and grown men shiver at the thought of Asherans at their doorstep. I begin to wonder how much of this is justified.

Only a single light lit the room, and it stung Knight’s eyes the moment he opened them. He was strapped to a table, fixed at an incline against the wall, holding him not quite vertical. A band held his head in place. Others held his wrists and his legs.

A chill brushed over him, and he realized his coat and shirt had been removed. By the lack of pain in his ribs or arm or head, he guessed they’d healed those wounds. Actually, he did have a headache, but not the kind he should have after a blow to the head like that.

“Phoebe?”

A man in a gray lab coat stalked over to him, then shined a light directly into his eyes. Checking his pupils for brain damage?

Knight grimaced. “If you let me go right now, I won’t kill you.”

The man didn’t respond. Instead he walked over to a table or desk, just out of view. The room’s light was focused on his body, meaning the rest of it was in near darkness. The scientist returned and injected something into Knight’s neck.

“What the fuck? Where am I?”

“Your questions will be answered. In time.”

A sharp burning began at the site of the injection and spread through his veins. Every beat of his heart sent a torturous fire pounding through him. Knight grit his teeth, repeating his mantra. Pain is in the mind. Pain is in the mind.

They’d poisoned him.

Why bring him here just to poison him?

It stood to reason they didn’t plan to kill him with the poison. So the poison was intended merely to cause pain. They were torturing him. Which meant he knew something they wanted—or they thought he did.

Rachel.

It always came back to Rachel. They were trying to use him to get to her. Which was about as likely to happen as a sun freezing over.

“I’m going to kill every last one of you,” he said, trying to keep his voice steady against the pain burning in his chest. “You know that, right? I’m going to put a knife through your eye.”

His chest seized up and he couldn’t breathe. The light around him blurred. Until all he could see was white, hot light engulfing him. His eyes burned.

He saw himself as a young boy, when they first brought him to his cell. Gibborim in training were given a cube to sleep in. Three meters on a side, with a small drain in the floor for waste. A woman shoved him into the room, and he fell, scraping his knees.

How old was he? Three, maybe.

“This is your world now, Ezekiel,” the woman, Sarah Radison, said. “This will be your world until you can kill a man with your bare hands. Then your world will grow a bit larger.”

And it had. The first time he’d killed a man, they’d given him a cell four meters on a side. This one had a mat for sleeping on.

Someone squeezed the back of his neck, pressed a cold metal instrument against his wrist.

“His body is fighting off the virus. His immune system has adapted in remarkable time.”

Knight couldn’t see the speakers. His vision was too blurred.

“Test his responses to electrical stimuli. If he really is … Well, he should be able to handle a great deal of pain without passing out.”

There were shapes in the room with him. A pair of men, maybe a third. His tongue was thick. “Enjoy this while you can, bitches,” he mumbled.

An electric jolt shot through him and his body convulsed. Another followed, and another. Every nerve in his body was on fire. It was like getting hit with a shock grenade. Repeatedly. He tried to scream, but his throat just seized.

Ten years later, Radison had become Alpha. The leader of the Gibborim. Knight was thirteen and he’d just assassinated an overweight businessman. He never knew what the man had done to deserve it. Maybe he’d spoken out against the Shadow Council. Maybe he’d just been a convenient target for Sarah to test her rising star.

Either way, when Sarah led him to his cell, she had a young, naked girl waiting for him.

“Serve well, and you get rewarded, Ezekiel,” Sarah said. “Anything you want can be yours. As long as you are ours. Now take her, and be a man.”

Knight had fumbled, hardly knowing what to do, until Sarah had given him explicit instructions. The girl had lain there, pliant, saying nothing while he’d had his first sexual experience. Sarah had watched the whole encounter, and it all left Knight feeling strange inside.

For his body, though, it had been the most amazing feeling he could have imagined.

And only later, after the girl and Sarah had gone, had he wondered if she had been so willing because Sarah had compelled her. For years after, the thought had come back to him when he was alone in that cell. The wonder if Sarah had threatened the girl into obedience, or just paid her. He hoped it was the latter.

A thousand murders might stain his hand—he had lost count—but for all his sins, he hoped he could say he had never raped a girl. He had killed mothers and fathers, sons and daughters. He had burned buildings, stolen, lied and cheated. And here he was, trembling over a girl from fifteen years ago.

“I’m going to kill you all,” he mumbled again into the darkness.

Someone injected something else into his arm.

Wave after wave of dizziness swept over him until he wanted to vomit, but dared not because of the angle they’d tied him at. He could well choke on his own bile. Instead, it scorched his throat.

He faded out of consciousness.

It was impossible to say how much time had passed when he woke again. A new man stood in the room, this one wearing a hooded coat, the same gray as the scientists.

“Ezekiel Knight. Welcome.”

Knight had heard that voice before. The man’s face was shrouded in shadow, but he’d seen it, too. Galizur. Rachel’s contact at Quasar Industries. So, was it QI and not the Lazarus Group who held him?

“I know you can hear me, Mr. Knight.”

No. These people fought like the Lazarus Group, using those same weapons. Which meant either Galizur was working with Lazarus, or … he was one of them all along. One of their leaders, by the way the other scientists deferred to him.

“I understand if you don’t want to talk to me. The experiments must have been very uncomfortable.”

“What do you want?”

“Well, I want to see if my investment in your parents was worthwhile. Do you know where you are?”

“Some facility belonging to the Lazarus Group.”

The man smiled and walked back into the shadows. “That’s right. Did you know we designed Gideon Knight in the room just below here? That was the easy part, of course. It was more effort ensuring he met Shahana, ensuring they had a child. You.”

His parents? What the void? Knight tried to shake his head to clear it, but the restraint bound. Instead he blinked. A lingering fire still ran through his muscles and his brain felt like they’d tried to liquefy it.

“I never even knew my parents. They died when I was very young.”

“Yes. But I knew them. I knew them both. In fact, the Lazarus Group has been studying your bloodline for seven generations, Ezekiel.”

“My name is Knight.” He tried to make it a growl, but it came out with less force than he’d like.

“As you wish, Knight.”

“This was never about Rachel … You were hoping to get me in that ambush.”

“Well, yes. I thought that much obvious. Ms. Jordan will be in custody soon enough. But you are a greater prize, Knight.”

Focus. Pain is in the mind. All human weakness could be compartmentalized, locked away. Mind over matter. Knight forced his eyes to clear and he locked his face on Galizur.

The son of a bitch was smiling. “Impressive. Do you know why you can do that? Did you think it was merely a matter of Gibborim training? If that was the case, then why were you better at it than most of your comrades?”

“I look forward to telling Rachel I broke you in half.”

“Yes, yes. But before that happens, perhaps we could have a civilized conversation.”

Knight chuckled. “You’ve abducted and tortured me. And you want a conversation. Fuck you.”

Galizur spread his hands. “So be it. I thought you wanted answers.”

“What do you want from me?”

The man stepped back into the light and met Knight’s gaze. He had the uncanny sensation of someone boring into him. Like this man could see his very soul. Was Galizur a telepath? Rachel had never said that, but then he didn’t know if she would know it, either.

“The Angels created twelve Races of Man.”

“Eleven,” Knight said.

“The Angels made races suited for high gravity worlds and low gravity worlds, those who could survive in blistering heat or freezing cold. And they created Psychs, humans with limited psionic potential. Nothing to challenge an Angel, of course, but they expanded the human mind, advanced it millions of years. Still, each of these Races had limitations. Imagine a Race that might combine these traits. The twelfth Race, the Nephilim, was never fully realized. They were meant to be spiritual successors to the Angels themselves. Capable of achieving greatness beyond human potential. Capable of blending many of the traits of other Races and of achieving physical and mental heights beyond any others.”

“What are you saying?”

“The retroviruses we’ve been injecting into you are meant to activate dormant genes you already have within you. Did you know I sent Ms. Jordan to you in the first place? Waste not, want not, Knight. The more stress you were placed under, the more chance your genetic abnormalities would shine through. You already have heightened reflexes, but it could be so much more.”

“You …” Knight tried to swallow, but his throat was too dry. They’d given him nothing to eat or drink since he’d been here. “… are completely off rotation.”

Galizur quirked a smile, then patted Knight on the cheek. “We’ve put a great deal of time and effort into your bloodline. Don’t disappoint me. Now, you’ll have to excuse me. I have to go claim the Ark.”

The Ark. Rachel. He wasn’t there to protect her. Phoebe might well be dead, too. Knight struggled against the restraints. He roared at Galizur, but the man just disappeared out a doorway.

Someone injected something else into Knight.

CHAPTER EIGHTY

December 4th

Our attempts to secure the Ark have been met with mixed results. By sealing myself on the bridge, I’ve regained control, but there are many threats aboard. More, I fear, than David can eliminate alone. I wish we had a way to reach Knight and Phoebe below, but any attempt at communication has failed.

Knight opened his eyes. There was someone in the room with him. Knight could feel it. It was more than the sense he normally had of such things. He could feel the man outside the room, too. He could feel the table in the darkness. He could feel the instruments sitting there. He could feel straps binding him, held by magnetic restraints.

He couldn’t see these things.

But he felt them all.

His mind focused on the restraints. He could brush them, sense their hold on his arms. He closed his eyes and pushed, and the restraints clicked open.

He fell from the inclined table and landed on his hands and knees. He felt it when the man in the room froze, then slowly turned to face him. Knight lifted his head to look into the scientist’s eyes, savoring the sudden horrible fear there.

The man ran for the door.

Knight launched himself at the table, grabbed a scalpel, then tackled the scientist. He rolled the man over and slipped the knife through his eye.

“Told you.”

Knight panted, the room spinning. He had to get a grip on himself. These fuckers had done something to him, but he was still Gibborim. He could fight through any pain, any torture. And people needed him. Now, finally, after so many years, he had something beyond himself to fight for. Rachel needed him. And so did Phoebe and the others.

He took two deep breaths, then patted down the dead man. He had one of those telescoping staffs in his coat. Not as good as a sword, but it would do.

Beyond, on a table in the corner, they had Knight’s coat and knives. He reequipped himself, and took a moment to catch his breath. He had no way of knowing where he was, or how much time had passed. Maybe less than a day, maybe more.

He rushed out and found a Lazarus guard roaming the halls. The man balked, as if unsure he was really seeing Knight free. In a heartbeat Knight had closed the distance. The guard tried to draw his staff. Knight cracked him across the face with his own.

He spun, hitting the falling man again on the backswing. The guard twisted around, flying through the air.

An alarm resounded through the hallways. Knight took off running. His legs felt supercharged. His heart beat so fast it felt it would pound right out of his chest. The hallways rushed past him faster than he had ever run before.

He burst into a room with a half dozen people in it. They had been sitting around a mess table and must have just jumped up at the alarm, based on the overturned trays of food.

They turned at his entrance, readying staffs. He was faster. He leapt onto a table and flipped over a woman, slapping his staff into her spine as he did. The crack told him he’d broken her back. He tripped another man and snapped his weapon up to break a third man’s jaw.

Another guard charged at him.

And Knight could feel the staff in the man’s hands. On instinct, he reached for it.

The staff flew out of the man’s hand and into Knight’s. The man skidded to a stop, staring. Telekinesis. The rarest of all psionic gifts. With his mind, he pushed on the second staff, and it hurtled back at its owner. It struck him in the chest and sent him stumbling to the ground.

“You have to be the stupidest little shits in the universe to give me this kind of power,” he said.

He traded blows with the remaining guards. They reeled backward every time he landed a strike. Like he had the strength of an Anakim. He broke a man’s head and a woman’s sternum. More guards rushed into the room and charged him. He tore through them like they were training dummies.

With his mind he grabbed a tray and sent it soaring at a Lazarus goon like it was a discus. The tray hit the man in the chest and sent him flying backward. Knight downed two more men with his staff. The other Lazarus warriors began to cluster together, backing into a corner. They tried to hold him at bay, keeping their staffs held at length.

Knight leapt to a wall, kicked off it and landed in their midst. He rained blow after blow on the sick bastards. The fools and kidnappers who had injected him with viruses, tortured him with electric shock. All to see if they could unlock some Angel eugenics project to create super soldiers. It seemed to have worked. His staff crushed a man’s windpipe.

He ran from the mess hall, then paused at a massive window. It overlooked a city, a skyline of buildings as far as the eye could see. On the street below he saw more people wearing the same Lazarus Group coats. Like this entire city was under their control.

He ran to a console and tapped it. “Building schematic.”

A display flashed on screen, showing him a wireframe of the entire compound.

There. A parking garage. He could escape through there. But he was going to need a distraction. Always misdirect your foes. He scanned the schematic. Central cooling system.

Knight killed two more Lazarus Groupers on his way, then burst into the cooling system. A giant vent shaft ran up dozens of floors above him, and all the way to ground level.

They had given him telekinesis. He wondered how far it could reach. He’d heard those few Psychs with the gift could often reach pretty far. Rumors always persisted of Psychs powerful enough to tear a hover in half with their minds. Was that possible?

He reached a hand toward the fan at the top. He could feel it there. His mind could touch the shape of it, as though he ran his fingers over the rotating blades. He closed his hand, felt himself tugging on the fan. He yanked his hand straight down. Metal shrieked. The entire shaft bent, and the blade jerked free. It plummeted down the shaft, embedding in the fans below.

The metal caught and crunched itself together, the sound mind-rending. The shaft shuddered, and Knight ran from it. The coolant would build up inside, and with the fans doing nothing but kicking up sparks, sooner or later something would blow from the pressure.

All the distraction he’d need.

He ran to the parking garage and grabbed a hoverbike. No key. So how was he going to … He could feel the bike, too. Feel its engine. He prodded it with his mind and it started.

Damn. Almost enough to make him grateful to Galizur.

Almost.

Now time to show his gratitude.

The parking garage was a circular tower with massive glass walls. Knight drove straight at one, blasting through it with his mind. The glass cracked and fell.

He launched the hover onto the massive falling pane, then spun it, dropping onto the roof of another building. From there, he yanked the bike up and leapt to another building, and then down to the street.

Behind him, windows exploded out of the Lazarus building.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE

I shouldn’t fear for Knight, he can take care of himself. And yet, I know he would have responded to my communications if he were able.

Everything unfolded before his mind. This must have been what it was like to be a Psych in the Conduit. Knight supposed he was a Psych, now. He could see the hoverbikes chasing him, though not with his eyes. He zoomed down another alley and back out to the main street.

A pair of soldiers leveled MAG rifles at him. He twisted and shot off in the opposite direction. MAG rounds zipped past him. He drove erratically, merging in and out of traffic to keep them from getting a clear shot.

Was this whole damn planet controlled by the Lazarus Group?

He had no idea where he was, but obviously he wasn’t still on Eden. Which meant he needed a way to get a signal to Rachel. She’d come for him. For once in his life, he had no trouble trusting someone else. He knew she’d come for him. It was an odd feeling, placing that level of trust in anyone. Sarah would be disappointed in him, call him soft. He was beginning to think it meant something else entirely.

He’d seen a tower to the west with a massive antenna. A communications relay, most likely. His best chance to send a signal. He angled around a hover truck and pulled the bike to a stop in front of the tower.

For a few steps he ran toward the back. He could scale the building and sneak in. That was the way he knew. Clinging to darkness, stalking the shadows, bringing death to the unsuspecting.

But these people had made something different of him now. Something else entirely.

Instead, he walked right through the front door.

A security alarm went off the moment he entered, and a guard moved for him. Knight landed a tight punch to the man’s chest, and he crumpled.

Another pair of guards leapt up from the front desk. How strong had he become? How far could he push his telekinetic abilities? Time to find out.

He reached out to the ceiling panel above the desk and pulled. The ceiling above them collapsed, burying the guards in rubble. A cloud of dust and debris washed over the room. Knight ran for the stairs. With the security alert, the lift was too dangerous.

He dashed up floor after floor, slowly realizing it wasn’t even beginning to tire him. What had these people done to him? He jumped onto a rail and kicked off to the next floor and the next.

Guards flooded the stairwell. Knight extended his staff, and they did the same. Had to be eight of them, but in these tight quarters, their numbers meant little. One thrust at him, seeming to move in slow motion. Knight sidestepped and slapped the man on the head with his staff, then jerked it back the other way to down another foe.

The stairs erupted into the chaos of melee. Guards swung at him. He blocked with his staff and leapt onto a rail, then jumped up another level while stabbing his staff downward to crack a skull.

His heart was beating so hard he was pretty sure it would burst if he kept this up. A human body could only take so much, and even if he didn’t feel tired, he had to be pushing his limits. If he still had any.

He ascended several more levels to reach the control room. The worker spun the moment Knight kicked open the door. He was barely a man, perhaps in his early twenties, eyes full of fear. The boy’s hands trembled as he reached for a button on his console.

“Don’t.” Knight strode forward and yanked him out of his chair. “Where am I? What planet is this?”

“G-Gadara.”

“What galaxy?”

“Uh, the Milky Way, s-sir.”

“Lock the door.” Knight shoved the boy toward it, and he did as he was told.

The Milky Way. It meant he was still in the same galaxy as Eden, and, he hoped, the Ark. He checked the date. Less than a day since he was taken. It felt like a lifetime.

“Mazzaroth personal access, Ezekiel Knight, code Shinobi 1275-L. Contact Rachel Jordan.”

The signal buzzed for a minute, but no response came through. She had to answer. She’d never abandon him … would she? He was more than just her bodyguard, he was her friend. At least, he’d thought … before David. He shook his head. No, he was letting the tortures these people had put him through get in his head.

“Leave a message. Rachel, I’m on planet Gadara. I was taken by the Lazarus Group, and they’re closing in on my position. I need extraction from this planet immediately.”

Please.

“Mazzaroth off.”

He glanced at the boy, now cowering in the corner, then rubbed his head. His eyes hurt. Void, his whole damn body hurt. He could turn this building into a bloodbath of soldiers sent after him, but sooner or later, they would send heavier threats than he was prepared to deal with. What happened if the Groupers decided he was too much trouble and sent a carrier to blast this entire building into the void?

He could flee, hide. But then Rachel might not be able to find him.

He couldn’t fly a ship himself. It had never been part of his training as Gibborim. He was beginning to think such training would become his first priority if he ever got back to the Ark. Even if he could steal a shuttle, he’d still be trapped in this solar system.

It was like being stuck back on Gehenna, denied the chance at the greater universe. A prisoner of circumstance—ironic given he was now probably a Psych. Would it mean he could learn to navigate the Conduit?

None of it mattered right now. He had to leave this room. They’d know he was here, but he needed to stay in the building as long as possible. In fact, he was going to have to hold out for as long as he could. And pray someone was coming for him.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO

In trying to change the universe, I have perhaps doomed myself to forever struggle against the greater part of humanity. I am trying to save them, but it is so easy to forget how much they have invested in the status quo. They fear the change I hope to bring them.

Another QI trooper fell, a pulse blast scorching his chest. David peeked around the corner. Clear.

They’d spent hours trying to secure the ship, but Conglomerate troops were coming in faster than he could kill them. Sooner or later, one was going to get a lucky shot in on him.

His comm buzzed in his ear.

“I’ve found Leah,” Rachel said. “They’re holding her one deck below you, about a half kilometer ahead.”

“Good, lass.”

He’d hated leaving Rachel alone on the bridge, but they had to find Leah. And for the moment, Rachel was safe.

David ran down the hall, for once glad the Ark was so bloody large. It meant even with a small army, QI couldn’t fill all the halls with soldiers. The best they could do was secure major junctions and strategic points. That left him relatively free to move about and take them down one by one. By his count he’d killed or incapacitated twenty-two QI troopers so far. Of course, he had no way to know how many there were on the ship, but Rachel was working on that.

“You’re nearing their position now, Mac,” Rachel said.

David slowed his advance and crept forward, stopping just outside the room.

“How many inside?”

“Hang on. It’s not like there’s a cam in there. It’s more like the Ark can feel … I have to concentrate … I think four, besides Leah. One by the door, the others spread out.”

“Left or right from the door?”

“Left.”

All right then. David buzzed the door and charged in, immediately slamming his elbow into the man guarding the door. He shot another QI trooper before they even realized what was happening.

The next pointed a MAG at Leah. “Drop it or she—”

David shot him.

The last man fired at him. A hail of MAG rounds glanced off his armor, shredding his shields. He rolled behind a table. MAG rounds tore right through that, too. David fired a burst of pulses in the attacker’s direction. The MAG rounds ceased.

Well. Not his cleanest rescue mission ever, but it worked.

He rose, scanning the room.

Leah was bound with magnetic restraints, sitting at a table. Blood from her former captor now spattered her pretty face. Her disgusted expression might have made him laugh, if it wasn’t because he had just killed three men.

“You all right, lass?”

“Yeah. Great. Get these things off me.”

He undid her restraints, then placed them on the man he had knocked out. Bugger would have a headache to beat the holy universe, but since he was the only one of his lads getting out alive, he was lucky.

“Mac, come in,” Rachel said over the comm.

“Aye, lass.”

“I’ve just picked up a signal from the planet. Phoebe’s shuttle was damaged and she’s under attack from the Lazarus Group. She says they’ve taken Knight.”

Seriously? He was impressed anyone could take Knight alive. The Gehennan was vicious as a Calnehian badger and ten times as fast.

“All right, we’ve got to go get her, then.”

Rachel was quiet for a moment. “I’ve got my hands full holding off the Jericho fleet, Mac.”

Shite. David couldn’t well leave Rachel alone to fend off any remaining QI troopers, either.

Leah seemed to see what he was thinking, because she nodded. “Don’t worry. I can take the shuttle down to get Phoebe.”

David moved to scratch his head, forgetting for a moment he wore his helmet up. He lowered his hand and instead patted Leah on the shoulder. “That’s not going to be a fun ride, lass. There’s a whole fleet out there, jamming our signals and trying to keep us from escaping Eden. If they spot the shuttle—”

“I’m a qualified pilot, Commander.”

Commander. Och. Leah must have been feeling a wee bit touchy.

David squeezed her shoulder. “Don’t think I don’t believe in you. I just don’t want to lose you.”

For a moment, she chewed her lip and a barely suppressed wave of emotion surged from her. Emotions he couldn’t read, though he was sure Rachel would have been able to. Leah shrugged out of his grip, then tapped her suit to extend her helmet. “You won’t. I am a Sentinel. They caught me off guard once. It won’t happen again.”

She paused to grab one of the MAGs, then jogged out down the hall.

“Be careful,” David shouted after her.

She waved a hand at him without looking back and kept running.

Sometimes it was easy to forget she had all the training and lethal skills of any other Sentinel. She too wore the black-on-black uniform of those who guarded humanity against the darkness.

Part of him wanted to go with her, to make sure she was safe, but she clearly needed to do this alone. Her pride had been hurt when those QI troopers had taken her. He supposed that must be why she was acting so strange. He could understand it. Best let her go.

Besides, Rachel needed him. He jogged back to the bridge. Several QI troops had gathered there and begun trying to cut through the door to reach Rachel.

David shot them all.

“I’m back, lass.”

She buzzed him in.

“Thank God, Mac,” she said, though she kept her eyes on the hologram ahead of her. “The bastards were cutting through my skin.”

Right. Her skin. Fantastic.

He retracted his helmet.

“I’ve picked up a message from Knight. He’s asking for extraction from another planet.”

“What?” Bloody void. The Lazarus Group had taken him to another world? “Where?”

“Gadara.”

David scratched his head. “It’s not far from here, but we can’t go now. Leah just took a shuttle down to get Phoebe. We have to get her first. You’re going to have to tell him to hold out a wee bit longer.”

“You tell him,” she said. “I’m kind of preoccupied operating the weapons by myself.”

There was irony for him. Knight had been the one to rescue him from Horesh, and now David was going to have to be the one to tell him no one was coming right now. Small comfort knowing the Gehennan could take care of himself. David hated leaving anyone behind, but these were the choices a commander had to make. Phoebe was already here, expecting extraction.

“Mazzaroth on,” he said.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-THREE

My worst fears are true. Knight has been taken, and I can do nothing for him. I suppose knowing my quest would have a cost and feeling that cost before me, seeing those I care about suffer, are two different things.

Ships had gathered all around her. More Quasar Industries cruisers had joined the battle. The sky swarmed with threats, stinging Rachel like a thousand insects. For hours Jericho had been trying to board the Ark. She’d shot down a seemingly endless barrage of missiles, boarding pods, and drones.

David had reported clearing many of the QI troopers, only to find a pod of Jericho soldiers had boarded.

And she had left Knight alone on Gadara.

The Lazarus Group had probably tried to torture him to get information about her and her Ark. Knight was her responsibility, a member of her crew, and she’d left him because of Leah and Phoebe. Leah. The woman in love with her man. How easy it would be to just leave her behind and head to Gadara.

Well, maybe not that easy, with a fleet between them and the Gate.

It didn’t matter. She would never do that. David would never forgive her for it, even if she could have lived with herself. She was doing all this to help people, not to abandon them. At least, that’s what she kept telling herself. But then, she’d probably killed several hundred people today, too.

“Come in, Jordan,” David’s voice said over the comm.

“Rachel here.”

“I’ve cleared the Jericho boarding party, but my suit’s damaged. I need to return and repair it, let it recharge.”

A sudden sense told her another party had boarded in the hangar. Little bugs crawling around inside her without her permission. They all needed to be stepped on.

The thought made her shudder.

When had she been willing to kill so readily? Was this her feeling, or the Ark’s? Could such an entity—a ship with the power to reshape worlds or destroy them—have a conscience? Her own identity had become so hopelessly enmeshed in the Ark’s, she couldn’t say where the line lay anymore. It wasn’t just her ship. It was an extension of herself. It had bonded with her brain. She felt its heartbeat like her own. So anything she did to prevent an invasion was really just self-defense.

Wasn’t it?

David buzzed the bridge door, and she waved it open.

Her eyes were dry from staring at the hologram so long. So far, the cruisers had kept their distance. One had tried to close and a warning shot had deterred it. Still, she hoped Leah would return quickly. Her enemies were multiplying rapidly.

“Are you all right?” she asked David without looking at him.

“Aye, I’m fine.” His voice sounded pained, so she spared him a glance.

David had removed his suit jacket and pulled back his undershirt, revealing a bloody wound on his arm. Even Sentinel armor could take only so much punishment.

“Mac …”

“I’m fine, lass.”

He wasn’t fine. He was bleeding, trying not to show her how much it hurt. Rachel’s senses were so caught up in the Ark she couldn’t read David’s feelings. A sudden emptiness opened inside her chest. As she became the Ark was she losing the man she needed most?

Leah definitely needed to get back here so she could treat that wound.

The thought, so detached, wrenched Rachel’s heart. Couldn’t she get out of the damn chair and do something herself? But the situation demanded her every attention.

David began field dressing the wound, but he must have caught the look on her face. “I have done this before, you know.” He injected himself with something—nanobot regenerators, probably.

Her mind flashed with an incoming call. A Mazzaroth call originating within the Ark itself. From the hangar bay screen.

Galizur Blake.

God, he was on the Ark.

“Receive call.”

The hangar bay filled her screen. Galizur stood there, surrounded by a dozen armed QI guards in heavy combat armor. David would be hard-pressed to fight that many, especially with his suit damaged. These soldiers were armed with MAG rifles, too.

“Ms. Jordan,” Galizur said. “You’ve gotten yourself into quite the predicament, haven’t you?”

Rachel reached into the hologram and flung a flurry of plasma blasts to shoot down more drones that drew too close. “I’ve been in tighter spots.” Being trapped on Gehenna, pursued by the entire force of Gibborim, came to mind. Right now, she had the most powerful ship in the known universe at her disposal. Things could be worse.

“Rachel. You must turn the Ark over to me. If you don’t, you risk losing it to Jericho Corporation. They have you badly outnumbered, and you cannot hope to fight them all alone, even with the Ark.”

Rachel almost laughed. Angels above, he was still thinking she would just hand it over. No one would ever separate her from the Ark. It was an extension of herself. She could no more give it up than give up her own hand. “Be that as it may,” she said, “why in the holy universe would I give it to you?”

“Because it’s mine.”

“Look, whatever contract we had before, I’m sorry. But circumstances have changed and I cannot turn the Ark over to you or any other corporation.”

Galizur shook his head slowly. “You mistake me. I do not speak of our broken contract. The Ark is mine.” He lowered his hood, then let the robe fall away. A heartbeat later a hologram surrounding him winked out and revealed his true face.

A cybernetic bar poked out the side of his cheek, and another above one eye. That was nothing, though, compared to the cybernetic wings on his back. His muscles flexed and stretched his wings, out to a five-meter span. A beautiful, terrible fold of metallic razors layered one upon another.

“Dear God,” David said by her side, his voice a bare whisper.

Rachel’s mouth wouldn’t work. Her brain wouldn’t work. It was impossible. The Angels were gone. They’d Vanished. She had the only remaining Angels in the ship’s cryo chamber. The universe didn’t need them anymore.

“Not God,” Galizur said. “Just His messenger. I am the Angel Raziel. I have led you to my work so you might uncover the Ark, Ms. Jordan. Now you will hand it over to my command.”

CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR

Of all the things I expected to find in my search, still Galizur managed to surprise me.

Rachel stammered, trying to get her mouth to work. Galizur was an Angel. Not just any Angel. The Angel Raziel. The Angel who wrote the Sefer Raziel. Galizur had given her the lead to find the book on Gehenna. He’d directed her to Knight. He’d given her just enough pieces of the puzzle to begin to solve it, while apparently missing the bigger picture.

“Why …”

He’d played her like a pawn. If Angels could look like humans through holograms, then, could there be more of them out there? Was that the truth of the Vanishing? That they were hiding in plain sight? Except, she had over a hundred Angels frozen on this ship.

“Why lead me to the Ark, Galizur? You had to know where it was, so why this elaborate game?”

Raziel spread his arms and wings wide. “You think I need explain myself to you, human? Every plan must hold within it a deeper plan, if you hope to overcome the enemy. You do not plan a move ahead, not if you wish to win.” He collapsed his wings behind his back. “You must plan a dozen moves ahead. You will hand control of the Ark over to me. Immediately.”

The hologram showed Leah’s shuttle returning. Rachel sent a mental command to the Ark to direct the shuttle to the other hangar, away from Raziel. That would not have been a pleasant surprise for their doctor or Phoebe.

“I think you’d best do as he says, lass,” David said.

She shot him a glare.

“He’s an Angel, Rach,” David whispered. “I kinda think you ought to cooperate.”

She turned back to Raziel. “I don’t appreciate being deceived for so long. How do I know I can trust you now?”

“I give you my word you will not be harmed. If you concede to my terms immediately.”

Rachel brushed her hair from her face and looked around the bridge, as if searching for answers. Leah would need a couple of minutes to dock the shuttle, and then they could be out of here. She hated to leave Eden behind, but now they knew where it was. Now everyone knew. All the Angels’ secrets and lies were falling away. At long last mankind would know the truth.

It was what she’d set out to do.

The idea of handing over the Ark felt like someone ripping her heart from her chest. But maybe Raziel did have a right to it. His people had built the damn thing, and if they weren’t gone, sooner or later more would come. It was better than a megacorp taking the Ark. Wasn’t it? Unless, of course, he used the Ark to usher in a new Days of Glory—a new age of oppression and theocracy.

“I’m prepared to hand over command to you on the bridge. But first I want a straight answer to my question.”

“Do you think to dictate terms to me, Ms. Jordan? You are in no position—”

“My position is on the bridge! You came in here and started dictating, Angel. So tell me, why all these plans? Why the subterfuge? You want the Ark? I want the truth!”

Raziel stepped closer to the screen and she felt a sudden pressure against her mind. Void, he was scanning her emotions. Could he really use psionic gifts like that, seeing only an image of her on a vid screen? “I admire your determination, Ms. Jordan. Your courage carried you this far, so I will give what answer I may, with the proviso that not everything will make sense to you.” The Angel smiled, though without any obvious humor. “I have acted through you as an intermediary in order to limit the attention I draw to myself. However, your actions have made any attempt to remain concealed impossible. Moreover, the mission on Gehenna allowed me to push another of my tools to the limit, to test its mettle. Answering two conundrums with a single solution, if you will.”

So Raziel had enemies? Or at least someone he was hiding from. It meant there likely weren’t too many Angels in hiding. But Raziel, as far as she knew, had hidden the Ark himself. Which meant he’d known all along where his brethren were frozen. Why had he not freed them before? Or was he the one who had imprisoned them?

Rachel’s eyes darted to the display. The shuttle was secure.

But what tool did he mean? The mission on Gehenna had allowed him to test the mettle of … Rachel herself. And Knight. Raziel, as Galizur Blake, had led her to Knight, told her to enlist his aid. He had to know where the Sefer was, or at least the general area. And the danger. He wanted to push Knight to his limits. But why?

“Very well, Angel. Come up to the bridge, and I’ll hand over command.”

She wasn’t sure what choice she had. Raziel was right. She couldn’t well fight the entire Jericho fleet. At least not while trying to deal with the Angel on her Ark. God help them all if Raziel decided to thaw out his brethren. She cut the line.

“David. I need you on weapons.”

David sighed and walked over to the console. “Aye. So we’re not handing over the Ark?”

“Before we do anything, we have to save Knight.”

Even if he wasn’t her friend … Even if he wasn’t her crewman, she would go after him. And now she knew Raziel had some special interest in Knight. He’d been testing the Gibborim, trying to … what? But again, the answer was too obvious. Because she’d been right about Knight being descended from Nephilim experiments. Raziel was pushing Knight to see just what he was capable of. A man designed to mimic the powers of Angels.

“We have to get to Gadara.”

As soon as she moved toward the Gate the Jericho ships opened fire. But they were holding back, trying to damage her without destroying her. It was her edge.

“Punch through!”

She pushed the engines, pulling close to 50 PSL. Let them try to shoot her while she was traveling fast enough to dilate time.

Still missiles ravaged her shields until they failed. MAG rounds couldn’t hit them at this speed, but missiles opened breaches along her hull.

Rachel screamed, agonizing pain ripping her apart. Her insides were torn to shreds by the insects around her.

She was only dimly aware of David carving the Jericho cruisers up with the ion cannons. Two cruisers exploded, then a third, and a fourth. So many dead.

And still she wanted more vengeance. Her hands trembled with pain. She jumped through the Conduit Gate, shimmering colors surrounding her. Safety.

She fell from the chair, clutching her sides. Trying to remember which parts of her were whole. “David, take the chair …”

He ran to it, but the Ark scraped the sides of the Conduit before he could take control. It was like having bits of her flesh torn off. Frozen and burned all at once.

David would be able to lose their pursuers. He was a master. He slipped into the chair.

The bridge door opened.

Raziel strode in.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-FIVE

Maybe I was wrong about everything. The realization Galizur—Raziel—had been manipulating me from the moment he sent me to Gehenna leaves me uncertain of anything anymore.

The door opened and David jerked around to level his pulse pistol at the intruder. An Angel. Despite himself, he lowered the weapon. How could he threaten such a being? The Angel must have overridden Rachel’s lock on the door, perhaps through psionics.

David tried to keep his focus on navigating the Conduit.

“Wait!” Rachel shouted, pushing herself up off the floor.

The Angel strode toward her without pause. He was the size of a man—a big man—but with that wingspan he seemed to take up the entire bridge. “Surrender command, Ms. Jordan. Turn the Ark over to me and no harm will befall you.”

The way she set her jaw, David knew it wouldn’t be good. “Lass …”

“I am prepared to turn the ship over … But you have to let us get to Knight first. He’s on Gadara, not far.”

“We’re almost there,” David said.

Raziel spread his hands as though making a magnanimous gesture. “By all means, Ms. Jordan. Retrieve the mercenary.”

“He’s the one, isn’t he?” Rachel said, and stood. She hardly seemed frightened of the Angel. David suspected she should be. “The one you were testing, your pawn on Gehenna.”

“What makes you think there was only one pawn on my board, Ms. Jordan?”

Rachel snorted in a decidedly unpious manner. David prayed Raziel didn’t decide to smite anyone.

He pulled the Ark around a few more bends in the Conduit, then jumped out of the Gate. Gadara was the third planet from the sun in this system, a tiny world covered by a couple of small cities and not much else. A glacier blanketed the entire northern hemisphere, so the only cities sat on the equator.

“We have arrived,” Raziel said. He pointed to a city on the display. “Your friend is there, Ms. Jordan.”

Rachel glowered. “You know that because you were working with the Lazarus Group. Just another set of pawns? Do they know what you are, Angel?”

“Turn over command of this vessel, Ms. Jordan. I do not want to be forced to harm you or Commander McGregor, but I am taking the Ark. Now.”

Rachel’s chest trembled, then she stumbled. David leapt from the chair to catch her as she fell. She went limp in his arms. His heart caught in his throat. He couldn’t breathe.

“Did you … ?” he tried to ask the Angel.

“No. She is unharmed. The shock of severing the connection with the Ark made her faint. Now go.”

David lifted Rachel into his arms. So she was free of this thing? She must have willingly handed it over to Raziel. And the truth was, he was glad of it. Rachel had been losing herself in the Ark from the moment they found this relic. It wasn’t ever meant for mankind, that much was clear. It belonged where it was—back in Angel hands, though Rachel might never agree. He supposed she’d seen anything was better than losing it to Jericho Corp.

He walked from the bridge and went to join the others in the lab. Leah and Phoebe stood around talking. When he walked in, Rachel unconscious in his arms, Leah rushed over to examine her.

“Put her on the table.”

“I think she’s all right,” he said, but did as the doctor ordered.

Leah scanned Rachel, then nodded. “Yeah, I think she’ll be fine. It was probably just shock.”

That and the psionic energies of Eden. Maybe mankind never did have any business returning there. Eden wasn’t meant to be a place, but an idea. A warning about what could be lost.

“We’re over Gadara,” David said. “Knight is down there, waiting for extraction.” He glanced at Rachel’s prone, helpless form. “One of us …”

“No, I’ll do it,” Phoebe said. “Stay with her.”

David nodded, grateful she understood. He couldn’t leave Rachel like this. Void, even if she woke he wouldn’t want to leave her under the circumstances. She’d just lost the Ark to an Angel and he didn’t trust her not to do anything self-destructive. She had a habit of doing just that, especially where Angels were concerned. She’d shot down her own career, lost her family, and since then managed to enrage every corporation and government in the universe. It was kind of impressive, actually, in an off rotation way.

Phoebe rushed toward the hangar. There were still QI troopers on the ship, but David supposed Raziel would tell them not to attack. Besides, they were probably busy rounding up any final Jericho Corp intruders.

He pulled up a chair to sit beside Rachel and brushed her forehead with his hand. Not the same without skin on skin contact. He stripped off his glove and pressed his palm against her face.

“She’s a lucky woman,” Leah said.

“What?”

“She’s lucky to have someone like you, David. You’re a good man.”

Was he? He hadn’t felt like one, lately. He’d lost his commission, committed treason … He felt like his whole life had gotten lost in the Conduit. And somehow he was still glad to be here, right beside Rachel. After everything they’d been through, all she had done, he still wanted her nearby.

Leah’s words warmed him inside. They’d been friends since the Academy at Hazaroth, but to hear her speak like that, like she was so proud of him … It made him feel proud of himself. For the first time in a while.

“I’m the lucky one,” he said, at last.

Leah shook her head, smiling at something he clearly had missed. “Oh, David. You have no idea.”

No idea how lucky he was? He thought he did. At long last, he thought he could see it. With the loss of the Ark, he’d lost his chance to help Mizraim against Asherah. There was still a war going on, and his people still needed him. But right now, he was here with Rachel. He knew she loved him. For now, that was enough.

“I’ll give her something to wake her up.” Leah pressed a tab on Rachel’s forehead, and she cracked her eyes open.

“Mac …” Rachel shut her eyes again, and her body shook. “It’s gone.” When she opened her eyes again, tears welled there. “It’s gone.”

He’d almost never seen Rachel cry. He pulled himself up on the table to sit beside her and wrapped his arms around her. “Aye, lass.” He rubbed his hand over her back and held her close. “Aye, I know.”

“I was connected to something,” she said, her voice breaking. “It was so … divine.”

“You’re still connected to something.” He kissed her cheek. “You always will be.”

CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX

If all of this was his plan, if Raziel meant for me to find the Sefer and then the Ark, I am left wondering what his endgame is. Why hide the Ark at all, if he was going to lead a human to it, centuries later?

Knight whipped his staff around him, then cracked another Grouper on the head, sending him flying off the building. The man plummeted toward the street thirty stories below. He’d lost all track of how many people he’d killed today, but the Groupers just kept coming. They fought like men possessed, like some divine force drove them to disregard their own lives.

A hover carrier leveled out over the building and Knight dove behind the entrance to the stairwell, trying to keep the smaller structure between himself and the carrier. Would the walls even stop a MAG round?

“Stand down, now,” the carrier ordered him over a loud speaker.

Knight had brought down a pair of carriers once already. He’d telekinetically grabbed one and sent it careening into the other. The effort had left him lying on the ground, barely conscious. He needed a new tactic for this one.

Maybe he could scale the stairwell and jump onto the carrier. If he could board it, he might be able to use it to escape the city.

More soldiers poured out of the stairwell, he could hear them. They’d blown the door off ten minutes ago, and since then he’d fought at least fifteen men. He peered around the corner to see others repelling down from the carrier.

Ten. Ten soldiers.

He could do this. There was nowhere else to go. He might die, but he would make it as painful as possible for these little Lazarus shits.

He jumped up, grabbed the lip of the stairwell structure, and pulled himself onto the roof. He immediately started running toward the carrier. Eight meters. He could make that jump. They’d never know what hit them.

The carrier began to turn toward him.

A shuttle burst through the clouds. MAG cannons opened up on the carrier. The supersonic slugs tore it in half. It exploded, the impact knocking Knight on his back. He rose to see the shuttle come in to hover over the Lazarus soldiers.

It opened fire with the MAG cannons. In a fraction of a second, the people who had covered the roof had become nothing but blood stains. Knight rose. That was a Sentinel shuttle.

It landed on the roof and he stalked closer, hand on his staff. Had they come to arrest him again?

If so, he’d need to hit them hard and fast.

The hatch opened, and Phoebe stepped out.

Knight pulled up short. She had come for him. She had come for him. When he sent the distress call, he’d thought Rachel would come. Then David had signaled they couldn’t, and he’d known he was a dead man. With the realization of that inevitability had come a kind of peace. He couldn’t escape the planet, but he could make the Groupers bleed for taking him down.

But Phoebe was here, quirking that odd smile, like she knew something he didn’t. He’d given her no reason to care, and she’d come anyway. He’d thought she hated him after what happened on Ekron. Then, on Eden, he’d feared she wouldn’t make it out, despite his efforts. And he’d wanted her to—he’d wanted to save her.

Knight compressed the staff and walked into the shuttle, never taking his eyes from Phoebe’s. She watched him the whole way.

“Are you all right, ninja boy?”

“You saved me.”

“Yup, yup. I’m a heroic gal. I show up at the last minute and save the day. Every day, in fact. Except Tuesdays. I take Tuesdays off.” She returned to the pilot seat and took off. “We probably shouldn’t stay on Gadara any longer than necessary. I’m plotting a course back to the Ark. Some things have happened you need to know.”

He grabbed her arm to pull her around and look at him. His heart was beating fast, like he was still in that fight. “I thought I was going to die.”

“Yeah, well, you saved me on Eden, too. You didn’t have to do that.” For once, she seemed less inclined to look right in his eyes, and turned back to the console.

“I’ll never forget this, Phoebe.”

“Nope. Never gonna let you, either.”

Her arm was so warm beneath his touch. Her face looked so soft, so pale. Her pink hair was like lace he suddenly wanted to touch. He yanked her to her feet.

“Whoa!” She slapped something on the console.

Autopilot Engaged.

Now she did look right in his eyes. And he knew that look. The same hunger he felt. He kissed her, pressing his lips roughly against hers. She fell back against the shuttle hull, but wrapped her hands around his head, pulling him closer. Her hair brushing his cheek sent tingles all over his body. God, she was so hot. Like an inferno pressed against him, drawing him closer. Her breath was like a sauna.

Then she shoved him away.

He stumbled back, uncertain what she wanted.

She drew her thumb in a line between her breasts and her uniform parted where it passed. Nano-bonded jacket. She cast it aside. Underneath, she had a thin gray shirt, so tight he could see her nipples hard against it. She was panting, so intent he thought he’d never been so aroused.

He unbuttoned his jacket and cast it aside, and she yanked off her shirt, revealing her pale breasts and pink-white nipples.

“You’re a goddess.” He threw himself at her, showering kisses all over her neck and chest.

The hunger built inside of him like the invariable pull of gravity to a star. And there was no escaping the corona. She returned his kisses, pulling him out of his bloody shirt. He didn’t even know how many women he’d been with, but this was different. It was beyond lust. It was need.

She pulled him down to the shuttle floor and slipped out of her pants. Her heart beat against his chest and he could feel it. Part of him wanted to wrap her up and protect her from everything.

He pushed inside her. The sudden, incomparable warmth of her was almost too much to bear. And the way she looked at him, the wry, almost wicked look in her eye, meant she knew it. She kissed him deeply until he was lost, whoever he had been falling away.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-SEVEN

In a way, his obsession with Knight is even more disturbing than his other manipulations. Why would Angels need to create super soldiers at all? Perhaps the answer is that they intended to return, and to use the Nephilim as their enforcers.

When Knight and Phoebe returned, Raziel had them sealed inside the med lab with the others. Rachel suspected the locks were psionic, because there appeared to be no physical construct to override.

The pair walked in, casting sidelong glances at each other. The emotion between them was almost overwhelming. Her empathic abilities were just starting to return after losing her connection to the Ark, and it still felt a part of her was missing. The Ark had become an extension of her identity, and Raziel had forced her to sever it. David’s love, his intense devotion, had started to fill that hole, at least.

But there was something else, something different going on between Knight and Phoebe. She’d known they lusted after each other for a while, maybe from the first day they’d met. But it had changed, grown deeper. It was as if he’d thrown his whole being at her. He was riddled with determination and confusion and lust and hope and maybe even love.

Rachel cast a knowing look at Phoebe, who nodded at her. Yeah. They’d definitely had sex. Good for them. It was better this way. If Knight kept his focus on Phoebe, she wouldn’t have to fear any further … distraction from him. She belonged with David. She loved him, he loved her, and they had a long history. Her relationship with Knight—anything beyond friendship—had been nothing but lust and guilt.

Knight’s clothes were covered in blood, and Leah immediately went to his side. “Are you injured?”

“Yeah, here and there.”

At her admonishment, he removed his coat and shirt, but Rachel saw no indication of fresh wounds.

“Where?” Leah asked.

“Well, I … I guess it wasn’t as bad as I thought.”

Phoebe laughed. “He just wanted a chance to take off his shirt and impress the ladies with those abs.”

David coughed, and Rachel smiled.

Leah smirked, then waved for Knight to follow her. “I need to run some tests.”

She directed Knight to a corner where she took DNA samples and then had him run in place and do various exercises.

Rachel tried the door again, but it wouldn’t open. “So we really are prisoners in here,” she said.

David put a hand on her shoulder. “We’re alive, at least.”

Yeah. That was something. Still, they were going to have to get out of here. She had no idea what Raziel was planning, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to wait to find out.

He had … She shook her head. There was a hollowness in her heart, and if she stopped focusing on David or his love for even a moment, it threatened to devour her whole. It was like a black hole had opened in her mind with the loss of the Ark. She slipped her hand into David’s, clutching it as if her life depended on it. Maybe it did. She felt … small. Too fragile, too human.

Maybe she’d never be herself again. Maybe she would always feel the loss of connection, the loss of the greater universe at her fingertips. And if she didn’t do something, she’d lose what she had left to the Angels.

And the voices of Eden, whispering to her … begging her to save them. Except, she couldn’t save them. They were three thousand years dead, and not really ghosts at all, but the preserved fear of the greatest massacre in history.

Maybe they’d haunt her forever.

She had to get out of this room. Almost, she could understand David’s devotion to duty. He was totally dedicated to his purpose, and she could see that. These people were her crew, her family now, and she had led them to this fate. Which meant she had to get them out of here safely. She knew better than to rely on the mercy of Angels.

Angels had created Gehenna, the Gogmagog, and countless other atrocities against humanity. They knew nothing of mercy.

“Hey,” David said, rubbing her arm. “Don’t go away again, lass. We’re here with you.”

Rachel sat in one of the chairs, head in her hands. Phoebe had gone to watch the tests Leah was doing on Knight.

“Something is going on between those two,” David said at last.

“No kidding.”

“Wait, you mean … Does she have feelings for him?”

“Yup, yup,” Rachel said, imitating Phoebe, then laughed. “You can be kind of dense for a Psych, Mac.”

“Aye.”

Leah returned a few minutes later, leaving Phoebe and Knight on the other side of the room. Her doubt was almost palpable, threatening to choke Rachel. She could so easily lose herself in such emotions. She tried to block the feelings out, tried to focus on Leah’s face.

“What happened?”

Leah frowned. “He was tortured by Galizur. They injected some kind of retroviruses into him, apparently trying to ignite dormant genes. The process triggered a severe biological reaction—it sent most of his organs into overdrive. I think you were right about the Nephilim bloodline.”

“You’re not serious,” David said. “That’s a myth. I admit the lad is fast, faster than anyone I’ve ever seen, but Nephilim?”

Leah nodded, starting to point at Knight, then jerked her hands behind her back. “When active he’s got adrenaline levels that should kill a man twice his weight, but his body seems to be processing it. Meaning he’s even faster than before, and a lot stronger. Adrenaline can let a body do some pretty amazing things—so imagine what it would mean to get a constant super-charged dose of it.”

“Is that going to hurt him?” Rachel asked. Galizur—Raziel—had tortured and experimented on Knight to create some kind of super soldier. And if it harmed Knight, she swore, whatever it took, she would kill the Angel for it.

Leah sighed. “I honestly don’t know. He’s undergoing some kind of cellular regeneration that seems to be keeping his organs functioning properly, even letting him heal injuries must faster than a normal human. Bruises he earned down there a few hours ago are gone. A MAG round that grazed him is already just a small scar. The truth is, we have no way to know what the long-term effects of something like this are on a human body. His whole system could give out tomorrow, or …”

“Or what?” Rachel asked.

“Or he could live forever. For all I know, that kind of regeneration would make him practically immune to age or disease. All I can say for certain is that Galizur has created something beyond any other Race.”

CHAPTER EIGHTY-EIGHT

If that is the case, if the Angels plan to use the Nephilim as warriors, perhaps the Angels themselves are not capable of fighting. Perhaps they recognize humanity as having mastered the arts of war in a way they never could. Angels, with their advanced technology, could destroy enemy ships, but maybe they were never planning to engage a ground force. But then, what force would they need to engage?

Caleb lived in the penthouse of a condo in southern Sepharvaim City, a short monorail stop from his office at Jericho Tower. His wife started when he threw open the door, and he couldn’t blame her. He never came home early, even before he became Chairman.

Ayelet stood in the foyer, fooling with the color scheme again. Nanobot painters had spread lime green throughout half the room, a distasteful contrast with the vermillion shade of the rest. Knowing Ayelet, it would probably be a whole other scheme next week. Assuming she had a next week.

In two strides he took her in his arms and held her tightly.

“What happened?”

“Nothing, dear. I just missed you and the kids. Are-are they here?”

“James went out to the ball game, but Miriam is in her room.” Ayelet pulled away from his embrace. “What are you even doing here, Caleb?”

Caleb took a moment to look deeply into Ayelet’s eyes. He always tried to do that when he came. He hoped, one day, if he looked deeply enough, it would give him the strength to resist the temptation of other women when he left. So far, it had never worked.

“I have to go off world. It’s urgent. I wanted to see James, too … But I guess there’s no time.”

Ayelet chased after him as he headed down the hall to Miriam’s room. She had taken a great glass-encased sunroom on the eastern side and filled it with greenery. Miriam had fine taste in flowers, so Caleb often surprised her by importing exotic orchids and other treasures for her garden. He’d even had the techs design a custom orchid in the lab, a flower that shimmered with iridescent petals. Miriam had made it the centerpiece of her collection.

“Caleb, where are you going?” Ayelet said. “Why now?”

“It’s just important, is all.”

To say the least. Apollo had ordered him to retrieve the Ark at any cost. Ordered him. No one was supposed to give the Chairman orders. But Apollo had, and Caleb knew he had to obey.

“Your fortunes will considerably worsen if Jericho does not claim the Ark,” Apollo had said.

His fortunes.

He’d like to think Apollo meant he’d lose money. Maybe even his position as Chairman. But then, he’d seen an iridescent orchid on the man’s desk. The message was all too clear. Apollo was threatening him and his family. And Caleb had played along with the twisted fuck for too long to back out now, at least not without a plan. He should have had a plan, a way out.

But Apollo had been God-sent, or so he’d thought. The man was a genius—if possibly an off rotation one—and his inventions and advice had rocketed Caleb’s career into orbit. It had carried him onto the board, and into the Chair. And now it was nailing him to the floor.

Before Caleb could even think about betraying such a man, he’d have to secure his family and his position. He couldn’t afford to move until he’d had time to plan. Until then, he had to do whatever Apollo said.

His head throbbed as he opened the door to Miriam’s room. What a fool he’d been to let the man put cybernetics in his brain. God alone knew what that chip was doing. It was supposed to protect him from telepathy, but was it? What if Apollo had put that thing in his head for the opposite reason? To let him spy on Caleb’s thoughts?

No. He shook his head. He was becoming paranoid.

“Where’s my pumpkin?”

Miriam looked up from her tablet and smiled. She was beatific. She was twenty—Caleb had been only a couple years older than she was now when Miriam was born. She had started at university on the other side of Sepharvaim and was earning accolades in almost every subject. Her true love was biology, especially botany, so he imagined he knew what focus she’d choose next year.

“Hi Daddy, what’re you doing home early?”

“He’s planning a trip off world,” Ayelet said. “All very sudden.”

Caleb didn’t like the suspicion in his wife’s voice, but he had no time to diffuse it.

“Yeah, sorry pumpkin. Come give Daddy a hug.”

Miriam did so, and Caleb held her for so long she began to squirm. “Come on, Dad. Seriously, it’s not like you’re going away for long, right?”

“No, no. Hopefully just a few days, maybe a week. I have to go to the Milky Way. Maybe make a few other stops.”

He prayed it would be no more than a week. Angels alone knew what Apollo was really planning. He clearly had planned further ahead than Caleb. Which was never a good position to be in.  Ask Joseph Lucius. One ill-planned interlude with Caleb’s assistant had cost him the Chairman’s seat.

No. To get ahead, you had to plan ahead. Caleb had made the mistake of putting far too much trust in a man he knew far too little about, and he’d been played. But now he knew the game, he was starting to learn the rules, and sooner or later, he planned to come out ahead.

No one threatened his family.

He kissed his wife and left the condo, then took the monorail to the spaceport. Jericho Corp would have their fastest ship and their best pilot standing by for him. Rebekah was waiting there.

“The Empyrean Throne is in orbit,” she said.

The Jericho flagship. Good. He’d asked for the closest ship he’d be able to lead into battle. The Throne would go a long way to making a statement. To Jordan and Apollo both. He would take the damn Ark. And then he would reevaluate his relationship with the scientist.

CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE

December 6th

The question about the Angels, or at least Raziel and his motives, brings me back to the Adversary. I know now the Adversary existed, and used the same technology as the Angels themselves. Could that be why Raziel would want someone like Knight? As a warrior to fight such an enemy?

“We can’t do anything locked in this damn lab,” Rachel said. It had been more than a day, and other than some QI troopers bringing them food, they had seen no sign of their captors.

She could tell they’d jumped to the Conduit not long after Knight came aboard, and that they’d dropped out again before long. But from inside this room, she had no idea where they were. It didn’t seem likely Raziel had taken them to another galaxy, not with so brief a jaunt through the Conduit.

“I’m sure they’ll bring us food and water again tomorrow,” David said. “We can take them out then and escape.”

Waiting another day didn’t sound like much of a plan to Rachel. It seemed likely Raziel would have accomplished whatever he meant to by then. And while she had no idea what the Angel planned, she suspected it would be better for her—and probably everyone else—if he failed. Perhaps she judged him too harshly. He’d manipulated her, but he hadn’t really harmed them, either.

Knight and Phoebe appeared from one of the back rooms. She wondered if she should tell them their emotions clearly penetrated the walls, leaving no doubt about what they were doing in there. But then, she doubted anyone else had a doubt what they were doing, either. Still, the rest of them didn’t have to risk getting caught up in the lust themselves. Rachel found herself constantly flushed, and barely able to resist pulling David into the back room herself the moment it was free.

Which left poor Leah to take her turn last, and no one to help her with it. She laughed out loud at the thought, and everyone turned to look at her. Especially Knight, who frowned. He was surprisingly self-conscious—yet another emotion Rachel had to work to keep from getting overwhelmed by.

“Knight,” she said, pulling him aside. “I’m happy for you and Phoebe. Really.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m serious. I told you to go for it.”

“I think your exact words were ‘fuck her and get it over with’.”

Right. “Yeah, well. Okay …” Maybe best to change the topic. “I guess Galizur—Raziel—led the Lazarus Group to you. I’ve been trying to figure out why.”

Knight grunted. “At first I thought they were torturing me for information, but when I realized they were really trying to alter my genetic structure—”

“Not alter it, I think. Activate latent genes you already had from your parents. And, if I had to guess, they probably didn’t have too many viable test subjects. The Angels obviously didn’t create many Nephilim; they would have been a threat. So when they located one potential bloodline—your parents—it must have been easier to just track it and experiment on it than try to dig up another one.”

“Fine. So let’s say they succeeded and gave me super-charged organs and telekinesis. What the void am I supposed to do about it?”

“Wait, what?” Telekinesis? That was impossible. Knight wasn’t a Psych. Unless that had been latent the whole time, too. And if he had TK, chances were he had at least some degree of other psionic potential, even if he didn’t realize it. She’d have thought a Nephilim would have all four psionic gifts. “You never told us about that, Knight.”

“I … Never give up all your secrets.” His smile looked forced.

“How strong is your TK?”

“Strong.”

“Anything else? Can you feel my mind? Can you feel the Ark?”

Knight shook his head.

“Okay. Close your eyes, Knight. In fact, sit down on the ground like you’re going to meditate.”

He did so. By this point, the rest of the group had gathered around to watch the spectacle. Let them.

Phoebe opened her mouth and Rachel shot her a glare.

She’d never had to direct a latent Psych before. Knight was probably on the verge of an ascension. Usually a Psych would have their last ascension by the time they were twenty-five or so. Knight was twenty-eight, which meant he was older than most who experienced this.

David shooed the others away. He sat down in front of Knight, obviously realizing what she intended, and Rachel sat beside him.

“You know, lass, I kind of thought we’d be doing this for our children. Not this big lad here.”

Knight gave David the finger without opening his eyes.

“Listen to my voice, Knight,” she said. “Try to drown out all other sensory input. Don’t let any other thoughts distract you. There is nothing but the three of us here. Focus. One of us is going to try to touch your mind. Tell me if you feel it.”

She squeezed David’s knee to tell him to try it.

A moment later Knight opened his eyes.

“You felt something?”

He nodded.

“From which one of us?” she asked.

Knight jerked his head at David.

“Good. That’s very good.”

Knight closed his eyes again, clutching his head in his hands. “My eyes are blurry. I feel like … Gack.” He shook his head rapidly.

“Like gack, huh?” David said. “I’d say that about covers it. Buggers really did unlock some psionic potential in the lad. His psionic nerves are probably flaring all over the place.” He tapped Knight on the shoulder. “Right, lad, try to relax. You’re probably starting to get flashes of possibility, ESP insights, maybe empathic senses.”

Knight grunted, then pulled his arms up around his head. His breath became rapid. Rachel wondered if this had triggered those adrenaline surges Leah told her about.

And then Knight breathed out deeply. His face went blank, his posture slack, and he stood. He looked straight ahead, still as a statue, and Rachel caught herself scooting away from him.

“What happened?” she said. “You’ve got to keep practicing, Knight. You’ll get it.”

“I can feel it. The Ark.”

She glanced at David. Well, that was fast.

Knight walked over to the door and took out his staff. It telescoped to full length. He stared at the door for a few minutes. “I can feel it all. I can feel the psionic locks on the door. Waiting for the right order.”

Well … damn. Rachel couldn’t even do that, and she’d assumed David couldn’t either.

Then the door opened.

Knight ran out, charging straight for a pair of startled QI security guards.

CHAPTER NINETY

Is it possible the Angels were creating the Nephilim as a weapon to use against the Adversary? If so, they clearly didn’t consider the cost to the weapons themselves. Knight was denied any semblance of a normal life in the name of Angel experiments. I cannot begin to imagine what must be going through his mind at such times.

Rachel was used to seeing Knight leave bodies in his wake, but this was different. He’d swept through the Quasar Industries soldiers like a solar wind, undeniable and unstoppable. They could fall back or fall before him. Three times the Ark slammed doors on them, sealing the way forward with psionic locks.

Raziel had probably not expected Knight to be able to override his psychic security.

Now, her former bodyguard had paused outside the bridge door, eyes fixed on it like he intended to bore right through.

“Are you sure about this, lass?” David said. He had his pulse pistol in hand, but she could sense his doubt. David had been a believer in the Codex, in the Angels, in all their lies. It must have been hard for him to take a stand against all he had once followed.

She patted his chest and nodded. The others had formed up in the hall, guarding against any reinforcements Raziel might call in.

The door opened.

And Knight looked to her. He’d always looked to her. This man, a Nephilim, was a one-man army, and he waited for her word. Her call. She wondered if she deserved such devotion. But she was damn sure going to see this through.

She stepped inside, followed by Knight and David.

Raziel stood beside the command chair, staring at her. His outstretched wings glinted in the light, casting a maze of shadows around the bridge. The being had an aura of majesty, she had to admit, and just gazing on his stern visage was enough to unnerve her. But then, that was probably the intent. For three thousand years Angels had indoctrinated humans to stand in awe of them.

“You have infringed upon my mercy, Ms. Jordan. I spared you and your crew despite all you have done, and this is how you repay such indulgence?”

Rachel swallowed, trying to keep her glower from faltering. Show a moment of fear, a moment of awe, and he had her. She had to fight against that indoctrination, the instinct to fear and bow. It was in her, too, as it was in all mankind, but she had one advantage. She knew it was there. “You locked us away. It is the duty of every prisoner to escape. Just as you have made all mankind prisoners to your ideology, your rules and doctrine. And now we must finally break those shackles, Angel.”

Raziel shook his head, almost looking sad. “You have no idea what is at stake here. Do you think the Angels imposed the Covenant on humanity on a whim? Do you believe we created such rules just to see if we could?”

Rachel could feel Leah and Phoebe had followed them into the room. And they stood behind her, waiting for her word. Somehow, she had become the leader of this off rotation mission. No, not somehow. She had cast herself into this role. She had made herself a prophet of a new age, and now she was obligated to carry it forward.

“I think you created the Covenant, the entire Codex, as a means of control. By limiting human evolution, by ensuring we had boundaries, you made sure we could never challenge you or your kind.”

“The doctrine which you so disdain was created to protect not only us, but mankind as well.” Raziel folded his wings behind his back and walked closer. His voice turned softer. “Humanity strives for greatness without ever considering the cost, the risk. There are laws of nature that, when broken, have severe consequences. Aspects of reality your race is not yet ready for.”

“That’s not for you to decide! We stand on our own feet. We can make our own choices about what we can handle and what we cannot.”

“No, Ms. Jordan. By the time you realize the danger you will place yourselves in, it will be too late. Some doors, once open, cannot be easily shut. Even now, one of the fallen seeks to take the Ark for himself. They are coming for us as we speak and I cannot—”

“Enough!” she shouted. “I won’t be cowed by your lies like my ancestors were. The Angels were false prophets without real power. We gave you power over us when we bowed before you. Your strength was always in the people who followed you blindly, convinced you were sent by God himself. You are nothing without us.”

“You are mistaken.” Raziel lifted his hand and a wave seemed to rush forward and slam into Rachel. It felt like being lifted by the ocean and flung against the wall. The breath flew out of her and she fell to the deck, banging her knees.

When she could lift her head, she saw the others had been thrown, too.

Knight was the first up. He rushed toward Raziel and launched a blinding series of attacks. The Angel fell back, blocking each strike.

David climbed to his feet and brandished his pulse pistol. Before he could even fire, the weapon flew out of his hand. It hovered in the air and then began to fire over her people’s heads. David threw himself prone, tackling Phoebe back to the deck to avoid the blind fire.

He rolled away, then came up on the far side of the room. All Rachel could do was stay down and watch as David tried to aid Knight in his fight against the Angel.

The being had Knight’s speed and seemed even stronger. He landed a blow on her protector and Knight flew backward, impacting the wall. It took him several seconds to get back to his feet, and by then Raziel had spun on David. He whipped his wings in front of himself. A sickening shriek of metal echoed through the bridge as the wings scraped against David’s suit.

Rachel thanked God David had his helmet up. The force of the blow hurled David against the screen. Lines marred his armor where the Angel’s wings had scored it.

Phoebe evaded the flying pulse pistol long enough to grab it and bear it down, using her own weight to pin it to the floor.

Knight charged back in, engaging the Angel again.

Rachel had the sick sensation she had made a terrible mistake.

CHAPTER NINETY-ONE

All I can say of Knight for certain is that the experience on Gadara changed more than his body. He appears shaken, altered, from the cocksure assassin I once knew. And, perhaps because she came to save him, he has thrown himself so completely into Phoebe, I am almost overwhelmed by it. It’s as if his whole life, he was searching for something to grab on to, some foundation for his life, and at last he may have found it.

From the bridge of the Empyrean Throne Caleb watched the approaching Ark. It didn’t try to flee, which unsettled his stomach. He advanced on the Angel relic with an entire Conglomerate fleet. Not just Jericho Corp—he’d informed every megacorp of the impending mission to claim the Ark.

And they were here, by his side. A thousand ships. Almost a hundred Shiza Security cruisers, filled with Companies. Each Shiza Company consisted of four to six highly trained spec ops personnel. They’d board the Ark and secure the way.

Then there were the Redeemers. Jeremiah Jordan had come with seven Redeemer battleships and twice as many cruisers. Caleb didn’t know how many Hearts the ships held, but he’d vastly prefer Shiza take the Ark than the Redeemers. Shiza, like the rest of the Conglomerate, would likely let Jericho take custody if granted certain sureties of shared tech. The Redeemers, though, they’d probably want to hide the damn thing all over again.

Regardless, the Conglomerate had agreed that Quasar Industries had held out on them. With the Sentinels embroiled in a full-fledged war with Asherah, QI was left to face the might of the combined Conglomerate alone. It would be a short battle.

“We want to cripple them, not destroy them,” Caleb said to Captain Ellis. “Fire a limited missile barrage on outlaying sections of the Ark.”

The Throne drew closer, and Ellis did as Caleb ordered. On the screen, he saw the rest of the fleet follow suit. Hundreds of missiles shot toward the Ark.

And for whatever reason, it did not shoot the missiles down. What the void were they doing in there?

Explosions rocked the Ark’s hull. Several sections decompressed, venting into space. As the shimmering skin blew away, it released some kind of viscous fluid. The Ark’s blood, he supposed. Apollo called it a living entity, and they had severely wounded it. He’d really expected more resistance. If Jordan had given up, why not just contact him to surrender?

“Cease fire. Raise the fleet,” he said.

“Yes sir,” the comm officer said. “You’re online.”

“This is Caleb Gavet. Commence boarding assault. We don’t know how many people are living aboard this ship. Spare those you can, but take that ship at any cost. Try to minimize damage to the Ark itself.”

Caleb glanced at Rebekah. She hugged herself, as if in awe of the Ark. He couldn’t blame her. The thing was twelve kilometers long and beautiful. Dark as the night and glittering like stars. Now venting atmosphere and blood. It was like they had wounded a great behemoth of legend. He almost expected a deafening roar, though he knew he’d never hear any such sound in space.

“It’s going to be fine. We’ll have it soon.”

She nodded.

They would take the Ark, and then he would pay Apollo a visit. Caleb was increasingly convinced the scientist had outlived his usefulness. Except … Someone would need to study the Ark and harness its secrets. He supposed, given such a prize, maybe the man would be sated. He could wait, eliminate Apollo later, after he’d milked this new discovery of every last edge possible.

Thousands of drones swarmed around the Ark, not needing to fire. The ship made no attempt to hinder any of the boarding pods or shuttles sent toward it. They landed in the hangars, poured in through the hull breaches, and took every opening.

Caleb chewed his thumb. “How many troops have we landed on the Ark?”

Ellis looked at a console before answering. “Best estimates are around two thousand from the whole Conglomerate.”

“Send another five hundred of our own men, Captain. Jericho troops.”

“You don’t think two thousand soldiers can take on what QI personnel are aboard?”

Caleb had no doubt they could. But he was done playing games with QI and Rachel Jordan. He was done being manipulated by Apollo. He’d had all he could stand of this whole situation, and now he was taking control. He just looked at the captain with a raised eyebrow until the man relayed his order.

“A-are we going to board that thing, too?” Rebekah asked.

“Eventually. After everyone on board is in custody. No sense taking chances.”

CHAPTER NINETY-TWO

I don’t envy Knight the horrors he has endured in his life, but sometimes I envy his intense clarity of purpose.

Knight pushed himself off the floor to see Raziel heft Rachel up by the front of her shirt.

“Desist this at once,” the Angel said. “The Ark is under attack.”

Knight rolled to his feet. “Let her go.”

Raziel stared into his eyes. “I’ll have a use for you soon. For now, help secure this ship.”

He had to be joking. Knight charged right at the Angel, then dropped back on his hands. He kicked out at both the Angel’s knees, and Raziel stumbled, dropping Rachel.

Knight grabbed her and thrust her at Phoebe. “Get her out of here!”

The Angel righted himself and buffeted his wings. Knight leapt backward, but the blades shredded through his long coat. Were they monofilament edged? They’d carved through his nanomesh. Which meant they’d slice through flesh and bone with ease.

Knight spared a glance at David, unconscious on the floor beneath the screen, and at Rachel, struggling against Phoebe. Leah ran for David. He wasn’t used to having to take care of so many other people. Knight was a loner. A ghost in the night. The only way he could protect so many people was to take this fight away from them.

The Angel approached him with wrath in his eyes. Raziel had managed to fling them all away with a telekinetic wave. If he could do it, maybe Knight could, too. He reached his hand forward and pushed, trying to see the air with his mind, see it move. A ripple pulsed forward and Raziel fell back a step, his jaw hanging open in an all too human expression.

Knight smirked. Nice to see the Angel wasn’t prepared for him. Surprise was the key to victory. Always do the unexpected. Knight rushed in and feinted one way, then landed a body blow the other.

The Angel grunted from the impact, but Knight felt like he’d just punched a solid wall. Metal-reinforced ribs? Was that possible?

Raziel swung and Knight ducked, then blocked more blows. The Angel was fast—with natural reflexes nearly as good as Knight’s own. But Knight’s training had honed his abilities to levels beyond his nature. He could use that. The Angel probably wasn’t used to combat.

Knight feinted again, then swung with an uppercut.

And Raziel simply wasn’t in the right place. He twisted like he’d known exactly what Knight was doing, and his fist landed on Knight’s chest. The impact hurled him against the wall and knocked all breath from his lungs. His vision blurred for a moment.

His ribs might be broken.

There was a pressure in his head. A crawling presence in his mind. The sick realization hit him—the Angel was in his head. He’d seen through Knight’s feint because Knight had planned it. And if he didn’t get Raziel out of his mind, he’d never hold the Angel off.

Raziel advanced on him. Knight kipped up, but focused his energy on the foreign presence inside his thoughts.

Surrender. The words echoed in his mind, almost making him stumble.

No. Get out!

Serve.

Knight focused on Raziel, sending a wave of anger, pain, and loss. All of the abuses and injustices of his life fell at the Angel’s feet. Knight’s life had been an experiment, a test. It was time his creator felt all he had suffered.

The Angel faltered, and Knight charged right back in. He landed a barrage of blows against him, driving Raziel backward. The Angel struck with his wings, scoring the deck. Knight flipped over the attack and kicked the Angel in the shoulder blades. Raziel fell to his knees.

Knight started in, then backed away. He dare not get so close to the wings. They could tear him to shreds before he knew what happened. Instead, he telekinetically pushed again, flinging the Angel into the hall. Raziel stumbled, then rose with a beat of his wings.

“You think your meager powers enough to stop an Angel, child?” He advanced back toward the room.

Knight glanced over his shoulder. Rachel had joined Leah in trying to wake David. The Sentinel was coming around, but not in time to do anything here. The Angel would tear the others to pieces.

Phoebe fell in beside him. “Are you all right?” She had reclaimed her pulse pistol. The moment Raziel appeared in the doorway, she fired a continuous burst.

The Angel folded his wings, blocking the shot. The pulses turned the metal incandescent, but didn’t seem to harm it. The pulse pistol flew from Phoebe’s hand and clattered against the wall.

She charged at Raziel, but Knight grabbed her, yanking her back. One heated wing scraped along her suit, and from her scream, scorched the pale flesh beneath.

“Phoebe!” He did his best to shove her away, toward the others.

“Come, Nephilim. Surrender to me and serve, and your companions need face no further harm.”

Knight spun, his hands trembling. His mind trembling. The Ark itself shook with his rage. And why not rage? He had scoffed when Rachel blamed the Angels for all that was wrong with Gehenna. But she had been right. Raziel and his kind had created a hell and damned future generations there because their ancestors had refused to bow down. The Angel himself had bred Knight’s parents like animals. He had cast Knight into the fires of the Gibborim, perhaps deliberately orphaned him. All in an attempt to find his potential.

Well, he had found it.

Knight spun on the Angel, thrusting both hands forward and sending out a wave of telekinetic energy. It tore through the doorway like a bomb blast, but the wave parted around Raziel, who had his hands up in a warding gesture.

“You cannot overcome my power, Nephilim.”

Knight rushed straight at the Angel and slammed into him. He was willing to bet Raziel didn’t want to kill him, not after spending generations to create him. So maybe those wings wouldn’t shred him. He shoved the Angel against the wall, and beat at him with his fists.

Raziel grabbed Knight’s arms and pulled them apart, stilling his attacks.

Knight reached for the floor, feeling it with his mind. Then he ripped it away. Shrapnel flew all around them. Metal shrieked, and blood—or some black fluid, anyway—gushed out of the deck. Knight and the Angel plummeted through it, getting caked in the thick stuff, and landed on the deck five meters below.

He hit hard, and it took him a moment to realize where they had fallen. The chill, the mist.

They were in the cryo chamber.

CHAPTER NINETY-THREE

The truth is, I was a fool to ever chase the Ark. No matter what I did with it, I could not have achieved the aim I set out for. I could not have simply used the technology left behind by the Angels to better all mankind. Because it was too tempting a prize, and no one would allow another to hold it long enough to benefit.

The sound of the rending deck made Rachel cringe. Her mind was no longer connected to the Ark, and though she didn’t share its pain, she still felt it. And the thousands of minds now on the ship. She had willed command from herself to Raziel—one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do.

Now she could do nothing to protect the Ark. The screen still showed what Raziel had last been viewing. A thousand Conglomerate ships laying siege to this ship. It was doomed. Even if she could take the command chair—and she knew it wouldn’t respond to her without Raziel’s permission—she could do nothing against such an armada.

David groaned.

“Mac,” she said. “Mac, I’m going to need you to get up. Right now.”

“Give him a damn minute,” Leah said. The doctor was tending to Phoebe’s wounds. Rachel prayed the other Sentinel would be all right. With proper medical attention, almost any injury could be fixed. But Leah didn’t have all her gear. With luck, she still had a few nanobot regenerator injections left.

She turned back to David. “Okay Mac, you with me? The Conglomerate have taken the Ark. Knight is fighting Raziel, but I don’t think he can … I don’t even know what happened. David, we cannot let Jericho or the others have this ship. I don’t know what to do anymore. I … I made a mess of everything. I brought us here and I don’t know …”

God, she was not going to cry again. She had been through plenty of fucked up situations before this. But the thought she would be responsible for Jericho Corp taking over the universe almost made her want to give up. Except, she couldn’t. She hadn’t surrendered to doctrine when the whole universe thought her wrong, and she wasn’t going to surrender to the inevitable now.

“We need a plan, Mac.”

“Aye.” He sat up slowly, rubbing his head. The way he swayed, she worried he might have a concussion. “If we can’t fight off the enemy, maybe someone else can.”

He meant the Sentinels. God, maybe she should have just given them the Ark in the first place. It would have been better than this. Her self-righteous crusade to better mankind had denied the Ark to people who would have used it to preserve her way of life. Maybe humanity as a whole would not have advanced, but at least they wouldn’t have fallen to a man like Caleb Gavet.

“It’s too late,” she said. “Even if we could get a message to the Sentinels, they’d never get here in time. Besides, they’re enmeshed in war with Asherah.”

David started to shake his head, then let it fall into his palm, clearly thinking better of it. “No, lass. There’s another force much closer that might be able to stand up to the Conglomerate.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Angels, Rachel. Wake them up.”

She almost laughed. Or cried. In fact, it was probably time for both. “You hit your head pretty hard, Mac, so I’m going to ignore that blindingly off rotation suggestion.”

David tried to rise, and she helped him to his feet. He steadied himself against the screen. “Do you have another choice? Isn’t that going to be better than letting the Conglomerate take the Ark? Return it to its rightful owners, Rachel. Let them decide what to do with it.”

Would that be better? The Angels had all but enslaved mankind, and most people didn’t even seem to realize it. They had made themselves prophets of their own religion and built a theocracy on it. They had eradicated any trace of other religion that might have existed among humanity and forced all to follow their doctrine. And then they had Vanished. They had frozen themselves in cryogenic suspension, and she still didn’t know why.

“Listen to me, Rach.” David grabbed her shoulders. “We don’t know what the Angels will do with the Ark. But we do know a little something about Jericho Corp. We know with this kind of technological advantage, they’ll seize control of the entire Conglomerate, and through it, force a stranglehold on Mizraim. I don’t want to be responsible for that. But this was your quest and your ship, so the choice is yours.”

With the Ark, Jericho could dominate the universe. The technological advances it made would allow the board to rule all mankind. But they could also use it to usher in a new golden age of science.

In the end, though, that wasn’t human nature. She’d seen enough not to blind herself to the truth anymore. Her quest to save humanity had always been futile, because she was trying to save them not from the long-gone Angels, but from themselves. And in the end, human greed and ambition would win out over any altruistic aims they might start out with.

Just like her. She’d wanted to save the universe, but she had let pride and possession of the Ark convince her to keep it from the Sentinels. For all their flaws, they were the men and women putting their lives on the line to protect the light of civilization. And the Ark would have been better in their hands.

Now Raziel had the Ark, but she wasn’t sure he could hold it against the Conglomerate, not alone. Maybe he would have woken his brethren anyway. But now it wasn’t his decision—it was hers.

David was right. She didn’t know what the Angels would do. But it was the only card left for her to play, the only way she was going to keep the Ark out of the hands of a single corp.

Rachel nodded and ran for the cryo chamber, then almost stumbled into the gaping hole just outside the bridge. Down there waited the beings who had saved and enslaved mankind. And Knight had fallen through. Damn, she wished she had a grav-net.

Rachel jumped into the hole.

CHAPTER NINETY-FOUR

So instead, I almost wish I had never recovered the Sefer. Of course, now I know the truth. If I had turned back, if I had failed in the mission, Raziel would only have sent another. It was never about me—and my own arrogance prevented me from seeing I was never more than a pawn.

The scrape of metal over the deck filled the chamber as Raziel rose. A beat of the Angel’s wings sent mist washing over Knight. He kipped back up to his feet. He was getting damn tired of the winged wonder.

At least down here the others were safe. He would finish this threat by himself. It was the only way he could protect Rachel and Phoebe from this thing.

“She was right all along, about your kind,” he said, circling the Angel.

“Ms. Jordan?” Raziel laughed, the sound cold but surprisingly human. “I fear she is misguided, Nephilim.”

“Stop calling me that.”

He needed a way to deal with those wings. Giant razors seriously limited his ability to close with the Angel. If he could get in there, he knew he could bring Raziel down.

“Everything I have done was to unleash your utmost potential.”

“Nice job.” Knight rushed in, flipped in the air, and flung throwing knives at the Angel’s legs.

Raziel’s wings beat away one, but the other embedded in his thigh. The angel shrieked in pain and stumbled to one knee, clutching his leg. Knight landed nearby and slammed his knee into Raziel’s chin.

He landed blow after blow, pummeling the Angel’s chest and face as fast as he could. Raziel blocked a few strikes, but Knight just kept attacking. He was done with the creature. It was going down. He twisted the Angel’s arm and slammed his palm down on it.

Raziel screamed, but the joint didn’t break like it should have. Raziel flung him off, and Knight flew through the air. He twisted in midair and landed in a crouch.

So all the Angel’s bones were metal.

He grabbed more knives from his thighs as Raziel rose. The knife he had landed in Raziel’s thigh rose up out of its own accord and flew at Knight. He twisted his head to the side to evade it, then flung knife after knife at the Angel while he rushed forward.

Raziel dodged the knives or beat them away with his wings. Knight skidded over to him and landed a tight blow against the Angel’s abs. Raziel’s wing tore across Knight’s chest and sent him backpedaling. Liquid fire erupted from a half dozen gouges. His armor was torn to pieces. None of the scratches were deep, but they hurt like the void, and he might bleed out if he didn’t end this soon.

“My patience is at an end,” the Angel said.

“Took the words right out of my mouth.” Knight circled around the Angel. Wait for an opening. His foe was ancient, powerful. But Knight was the ghost in the night. He was death. And that was the answer. If he couldn’t win in a head-on confrontation, he had to use his strengths.

A beat of the Angel’s wings carried him into the air. Raziel landed, swinging his fist at Knight in a blow that should have crushed him. Knight rolled under the Angel and took off into the mist at a dead run. He skidded behind one of the cryo units before Raziel turned around.

The Angel turned, scanning the room. Even if he could see in the dark, the mist should cover Knight. Unless Raziel had thermographic vision. Based on the way he kept slowly turning, scanning the chamber, Knight guessed not.

He stalked closer. Waiting for the opening.

Rachel dropped into the chamber, grunting when she landed hard.

Knight almost stumbled. What in the holy universe was she thinking?

Raziel spun toward Rachel, who was rising from the floor. Damn girl. But she might have given him his opening. Knight snuck closer, knives in each hand. Raziel advanced toward Rachel, who had spotted him and was backing away.

Knight slammed a throwing knife into each of the Angel’s thighs. Raziel shrieked and fell, and Knight flipped over him before his wings could retaliate. He kneed Raziel in the face, then flipped backward, kicking the Angel in the head as he went.

Raziel fell back, and Knight charged back in and leapt on top of him. He slipped a knife between the Angel’s ribs. The creature coughed up blood. Knight considered slitting its throat, but he wasn’t sure if Rachel would have further use for it.

An alarm sounded through the cryo chamber. Icy mist began venting from every single unit in the chamber, and the doors cracked open. Knight rose, at a loss. Had Raziel been able to psionically awaken his brethren? But it was Rachel, standing by a console, who seemed to look at the opening chambers without surprise. Horror, but not surprise.

Knight ran to her. “What the void?”

“We have no choice, Knight. The Ark is lost, Jericho is everywhere.”

Then why in the holy universe had he just worn himself ragged fighting down a Goddamn Angel? “So now you want them to have it? These things you blamed every wrong in the universe on! You want them to take the Ark?” He clutched his wounded side, surprised to see the cuts already bled less than they had moments ago.

“I don’t want them to have it. I just don’t want the Conglomerate to have it any more.”

David leapt down, too, though a grav-net arrested his fall. “Rachel, are you all right?” He approached, and she nodded. “You look a bit worse for wear, lad,” he said to Knight.

Knight felt like he’d walked through a blender, but his strength was returning quickly. He was almost—almost—grateful for what Raziel had done to him to make him like this. He had never been stronger.

“We have to get out of here,” Rachel said.

David shook his head. “It’s too late, lass. There are ships everywhere. We could never escape this in a shuttle, even if there was anywhere we could reach.”

“So you’re just giving up?” Knight said. He’d surrender when he was dead, if then.

“If we turn ourselves in, they might spare us. Otherwise, maybe we can find a place to hide on the Ark until the Angels …”

“That …” Raziel rasped from the floor behind them, “is a poor idea. You don’t understand what you have started here, Ms. Jordan. You … should have turned this Ark over to me sooner.” The Angel groaned. “My ship is in the hangar … You can escape in it.”

Now the Angel was helping them? Knight was so confused. This was why Rachel was supposed to be in charge. He liked to clearly know who his enemies were. These corporations seemed to switch sides faster than he could keep track of. And apparently, so did Angels.

Rachel nodded. “Fine.” She turned to Knight. “Bring the Angel.”

CHAPTER NINETY-FIVE

But the door has been opened. The Ark has been found, as has Eden, and such revelations cannot be undone. Whether Raziel manipulated me or not, because of my actions, the universe is at war. I have lost the Ark, and even I can no longer predict what is to come. I can only pray the human race shall come through the fire stronger than before, and free.

Rachel strapped herself into the Angel’s ship. Its design was foreign, like a sleek dart, jet black against the night. David and Phoebe had shot their way to the hangar, with Knight hauling the unconscious Angel. She supposed that extra adrenaline was what let him carry Raziel, who must weigh God-alone-knew-what.

“Much as I love this place,” Phoebe said, “and really, some of my best, or at least most recent memories, are here—but can we get the void off this ship?”

David sat at the pilot’s console and cast a scowl at her. He pushed a few buttons, still probably trying to familiarize himself with the design.

“What should I do with Raziel?” Knight asked.

Rachel stared at the Angel who had caused so much chaos in their lives. “Restrain him. One of the side chambers might work for a brig cell. Use mag restraints on his arms and legs. And wings.”

Knight did as she asked, with help from Phoebe, then the two of them strapped in beside each other. They were staring into each other’s eyes like long-lost lovers. Rachel was used to the waves of lust radiating off the pair, but it was deeper now. A warmth, a trust she had never felt from either of them. Were they falling in love?

She tried to tell herself she was happy for them. She should be. She was with David, and there was no way in the void she should be jealous of Phoebe. Just because all this time Knight had wanted her, and now he had eyes only for the Cold-worlder. It was so shallow of her to want Knight to still chase after her, knowing she had chosen David. She supposed, in a way, he had become her best friend, and knowing he felt that way for her had been … flattering? Or a comfort. At least two men in the universe cared deeply for her, even if she couldn’t count her father or brother among them.

But Knight had changed in other ways, too. Raziel’s experiments, his tortures, had transformed the former assassin into something more than human. There were no real records of Nephilim, no way to know what would happen to him. Leah had said his body might well give out from the strain, or maybe he could live forever because of the cellular regeneration. What kind of burden would that place on him?

Knight had had no childhood. He’d been raised by a monster. Everything Rachel knew about Sarah Radison made her wish Knight had killed the woman. And now, Knight had been remade by a different monster. And somehow, despite being twice birthed from such darkness, she still felt he could be a good man. Never mind his attempts to hide it.

The ship shot out from the hangar. David flew it as if they were pursued, but Rachel soon realized they weren’t. She unstrapped herself and rose to glance at the scanners. It was as if the Conglomerate ships didn’t even see them.

“They must not be able to pick this ship up on the scanners,” she said.

“Aye, I was just thinking the same thing,” David said.

Thank God for small blessings.

David launched them into the Conduit. In here, they would be safe. At least for a while. David could escape the Conglomerate ships, she was sure. Whether Jericho or the Angels held the Ark was out of her hands. Maybe she had failed. Maybe she had made all the wrong choices. But in the end, she saw no other options.

She sat down beside David, then glanced at the rest of the crew. Leah had gone to inspect Raziel. Knight and Phoebe shared a quiet kiss in the corner.

The others, they all looked to her and David. They didn’t ask where the ship was headed. They trusted them to make the decisions. It was a burden, she supposed. She wasn’t really used to having people expect her to lead them. She had been on her own so long she didn’t know how to feel about it. But David was a natural leader, and she had chosen to make herself one. All she could do now was see it through.

She blew out a long breath, then turned to him. “What are we going to do now?” She spoke softly, trying not to let the others hear her doubt. If they looked to her and David as the leaders, let them. Let them believe she had the answers. It was the smallest comfort she could offer at the moment.

David scratched his head, but kept his eyes on the Conduit ahead. “You already know the answer, lass. We have to go to the Sentinels. Mizraim is still at war with Asherah. I have a duty to do whatever I can to protect the Empire. And now that we’ve lost the Ark, they may be the only ones we can turn to.”

Assuming the Sentinels didn’t just throw them all in jail. Or send them back to Horesh. David had escaped a penal colony, and she’d killed people in the process. She doubted they would receive a warm welcome. And yet … Maybe he was right. Without the Sentinels, she had no one else to turn to. She could only wait and see whether the Angels or the Conglomerate came out ahead, while Asherah and Mizraim destroyed each other.

David had done all she had asked. She’d found Eden because of him.

And that was it, wasn’t it? She had found Eden. They could return to Mizraim with that knowledge, with the chance to lead mankind back to its homeworld. She prayed such a revelation would be enough to excuse their crimes. Either way, it was her last shot to help the human race escape the shadows cast over it by the Angels.

And Rachel was used to playing a long shot.

CHAPTER NINETY-SIX

December 15th, 3096 EY

To stop the Conglomerate from taking the Ark I awakened the long-dormant Angels from cryo sleep. More than a week has passed, and we have heard nothing from them. My nights are restless, while I wait for the hammer to fall. Time will tell whether I made the right decision.

The last time David saw the Tabernacle he had come in shame, prepared for a court martial. Despite all he had done since then, the Sanhedrin had welcomed him back. Perhaps the war with Asherah was going poorly and they sought any advantage they could gain. Perhaps it was all a trap. After all, Imperator Scott had agreed to his return to duty in exchange for Rachel and Knight joining the Sentinels.

David brought Raziel’s unusual ship toward one of the Tabernacle’s three hangars—each a bubble on station’s surface. The station was a massive sphere housing other spherical districts. As they approached, he released control to the station. The computer guided them through a series of airlock doors that shut behind them, then they touched down gently on the hangar floor.

“Are you sure about this?” Rachel asked.

“It’s a little late for second thoughts,” Knight said from the back of the ship.

Rachel still seemed to hope that learning the location of mankind’s lost homeworld would unite them. David had his doubts. Word had spread through the galaxies like a solar wind, and still Mizraim and Asherah fought. Still the Conglomerate schemed.

David sighed. Part of him wished Rachel would have stayed on Eden. Maybe she would have been safer. Knowing her, maybe not. Besides, the psychic ghosts there would have driven her off rotation.

Either way, the Sanhedrin might not have agreed to his pardon without Rachel’s cooperation. Her intimate knowledge of the Angel’s Ark made her the most valuable asset in the universe. At least he hoped so.

Just like he chose to interpret those four Sentinels waiting outside the ship as an honor guard, not a prisoner escort. He popped the hatch to the ship and rose from the control console. Best get it over with.

Knight stepped out of the ship before David could even get there and stood so close to one of the Sentinels it couldn’t help but be interpreted as a challenge. The Sentinel kept his face utterly expressionless, looking Knight right in the eye. Good lad. Phoebe burst out laughing and followed her new boyfriend out.

David probably would have been happy for the lass, if her choice of man wasn’t an off rotation former assassin. And possibly a Nephilim.

He followed the pair out of the ship, and Rachel and Leah came right behind him. David saluted the Sentinels.

“Commander McGregor,” one of them said, “we’re to escort you to the Shekhinah.”

The Shekhinah? So the Sanhedrin weren’t meeting him themselves? They had been sent straight to the top. It might be a good sign. Or it might not.

“Aye. Lead the way, then.”

Their escort guided them toward the lift.

“What’s the Shekhinah?” Knight whispered.

“A sentient computer the Angels left behind to rule in their absence,” Rachel said. “It forms the heart of the Tabernacle and is the ultimate authority in the Mizraim Empire.”

“I thought the Sanhedrin ruled the Empire? Those Imperators?”

Oh, Lordy. He’d gotten her started in lecture mode now.

“The Sanhedrin are the human voice of Mizraim. Individually they are called Imperators, and each is in charge of one of the twenty-three galaxies the Empire controls. Imperator Scott is the highest ranking, because he controls Andromeda, the largest galaxy. But the Imperators are each just agents of the Shekhinah, which, according to doctrine, speaks with the authority of the Angels themselves.”

The way she said ‘doctrine’ somehow managed to make the word drip with venom. Rachel had been raised by Redeemers—her father was a hierophant, one of the groups’ highest ranking members. And yet she had rejected all they believed in—all David himself had once believed—and appointed herself to save humanity from its own blind faith. Endearingly arrogant of her, really.

“The Shekhinah first co-opted the Sentinels,” Rachel said.

“Lass,” David said. “It didn’t co-opt us. The Shekhinah is the legitimate authority appointed to rule over mankind, and the Sentinels were established to protect humanity. It only stands to reason—”

“The legitimate authority according to itself. Very convenient, David.”

He could just imagine her pacing in a classroom while teaching this. Was Knight even listening? Probably. The Gehennan might have feigned disinterest in politics, but David suspected he absorbed information quickly and totally. His training would have made such things imperative.

“The Sentinels were formed in the wake of the Exodus,” Rachel said. “With the Adversary almost wiping out mankind, they swore to create a force so disciplined, so powerful, no enemy could ever threaten us with extinction again. Ironically, the same justification the Angels probably had for the Third Commandment.”

Man Shall Populate the Universe. Rachel had never had much love for that one. She took the Angels’ command to have lots of babies as some kind of personal insult, claiming the social pressure it placed on women was only a step above institutionalized rape. Meaning she objected on moral grounds to something maybe she would otherwise have done—or at least that was his fear. He’d wanted children with her for years, and she’d always demurred. And part of him, a part he tried not to dwell on, feared she did so not because of him, or even because she didn’t want children, but because she wanted to challenge tradition one more way.

The look she suddenly shot him told him she’d felt the direction of his feelings. He tried to focus on his desire for children, not any resentment he might have held for her misguided idealism. As an empath, she was attuned to the feelings of all those around her, but most especially him. And he still hoped one day soon they would move past the wars and chaos and her crusade and be able to be together, to raise a family.

And just when he would begin to think all hope for it lost, she would give him one of those smiles, like she offered now, clearly picking up his sentiment.

“My favorite Commandment,” Knight said.

Phoebe elbowed him in the side. “Been following it, ninja-boy? Do I have to worry about lots of little Knights running around Gehenna?”

“No.”

“That’s too bad,” Leah said. “It would be interesting to study your bloodline further if we …” The Amphie’s voice trailed off at the look everyone gave her.

David chuckled.

The lift carried them from the hangar, zipping past other spheres and down toward the central hub. Inside, in a darkness beyond the Sanhedrin Chamber, waited the most powerful computer in the universe—save perhaps the Ark itself.

The lifted settled into the central sphere and the smart glass doors opened. Their Sentinel escort formed up on the walkway leading to the chamber. This was as far as they went, David guessed.

“What are you doing?” Phoebe whispered to Knight.

David glanced back to see the assassin’s hand on one of his throwing knives. He followed the man’s gaze to the wall. Or a slight shimmering against it. The Gog. So the spies were still here, in the Tabernacle itself. Parasites feeding on the fear of others. If the Shekhinah allowed him back into service, maybe he could find out how deeply the Sentinels’ ties with the Gogmagog now ran.

“Peace,” he said, staring into Knight’s eyes. He willed the man to understand that, aye, he knew the creature was there, and no, they couldn’t do anything about it.

Knight released the knife, and David turned back, leading the way through the Sanhedrin Chamber. The circular room remained dark, except for a single illuminated path, leading toward a door in the back of the hall.

David paused at the door to take in his four comrades. Leah and Phoebe had sided with him when he mutinied against Captain Waller. He had spared them persecution by taking the blame on his shoulders, but then, he’d also made sure they were on the Ark and out of Waller’s reach. Now, he’d brought them back, and he couldn’t say for certain whether they would face consequences for their actions.

But they had lost the Ark. The Angels were awake now, and he hoped they had driven the Conglomerate off the Ark. All he could do was try to protect his people from the war with Asherah. And to do that, he had to be here. He had to risk it all, even the people he cared most about. Even Rachel, though he’d do almost anything to keep her safe.

David pulled off his glove and placed his palm on the door scanner.

CHAPTER NINETY-SEVEN

I have spoken to David of my fears, my doubts … He tells me to have faith in the Angels. He still believes in them, despite the theocracy they forced us under. For my part—I believe in him.

The only light in the inner chamber came from a central pillar Knight assumed was the Shekhinah itself. A plethora of thick, black cables ran from the pillar into the walls of the circular room. Faint red illumination seeped from small openings in the pillar.

Despite the darkness, he could see. He had always had good night vision, but this was something else. He could clearly see the maze of cables as they twisted around each other like a den of snakes. He could see the conduits on the wall where those cables disappeared. Was it possible Raziel’s experiments had done something to his eyes, as well?

David saluted the pillar, then stood at attention. Utterly ridiculous. “David McGregor, reporting.”

A sound of mechanical whirring fired inside the pillar, so faint, he wondered if the others had even heard it.

Then a voice spoke. “Ezekiel Knight.” The voice, though feminine, sounded hollow, and it echoed off the chamber as though coming from all directions. In fact, Knight had a faint sensation it was not a single voice, but that of several women speaking in perfect unison.

A beam of light shot from the pillar and swept over him, scanning his body from head to toe in an instant. “Your bloodline is confirmed,” the computer said. “Your genetic structure can only have resulted from an Angel eugenics project.”

“Yeah, I got that already.”

“Knight!” David said through clenched teeth.

The computer whirred briefly. “Such a bloodline represents an invaluable resource to the Mizraim Empire. You are hereby ordered to uphold the Third Commandment and reproduce as frequently as possible, with as many partners as available.”

Well … okay. “I’ll give it my best shot.”

Phoebe slapped his ass. “Really? As many partners as available? You may find that number fairly limited. One at the most, I think. Depending on your behavior. Actually, that probably means none.”

“Rachel Jordan,” the machine said, apparently ignoring anything further Knight might have to say on the matter. “You are prepared to turn over to the Sentinels all knowledge related to the Ark and any secrets it may have led you to?”

And this was where they came to it, in the end. Rachel said she was going to cooperate, but for as long as he’d known her, it was never her style. She distrusted any authority as if on principle, and this thing appeared to be the ultimate authority in Mizraim. It kind of boggled the mind that an Empire ruling over trillions of people was itself ruled by a computer. If Rachel was right, the thing had created the Empire by appointing itself the legitimate successor to the Angels. It had recruited the Sentinels to enforce its order, and created the Sanhedrin to give a human face to its rule. Where Knight came from, humans created machines and used them, not the other way around.

Phoebe’s jest aside, he wasn’t entirely certain he liked being told to breed by a machine. Not that he didn’t want children—he surely did. Like anyone else—or almost anyone, excluding Rachel—he believed in the Third Commandment. Until he’d met Rachel, he’d never even questioned why. People were supposed to have children. That’s what everyone was taught was the purpose of life, from the time they were children themselves. Sometimes, he’d felt his life a failure because he had found no mate on Gehenna. And then he’d met Rachel, and she’d asked the damn question. The question he had never thought to ask in his whole life before that—why? Did he want children because he truly wanted them, or did he want children because he’d been taught to want them, by others who had been taught the same thing?

Rachel had made his life a lot more complicated.

She breathed out a long sigh. “I am. I have agreed to commit myself fully to the Sentinels and their cause.”

“And you, Ezekiel Knight? Do you also agree?”

Knight nodded.

Phoebe squeezed his hand. “I think you have to speak,” she whispered.

“Yes.”

“Then the Shekhinah hereby bestows upon the both of you a field commission, of the rank of Lieutenant.”

“Wait, what?” Phoebe said. “He’s going to be the same rank as me? That’s a load of—”

David spun and silenced her with a glare. Knight chuckled, and David turned the look on him. Making it even harder to keep a straight face. Knight squeezed Phoebe’s hand back and she jerked it away, then folded her arms over her chest.

“David McGregor, the Shekhinah hereby restores your commission and promotes you to the rank of Captain. You are ordered to take command of the Wheel of Law, and to take that ship to the front against the Asherahan Confederacy. Use all resources available, including the knowledge of Rachel Jordan, to eliminate the threat. Be certain to ensure the survival of Ezekiel Knight, and arrange for as many females on your ship to breed with him as possible.”

“What?” Phoebe stomped her foot. “What the bloody void kind of—”

David shot her another look, and Leah put a hand on her shoulder.

Knight decided nothing he could possibly say could make the situation any better, so he kept his mouth shut.

“I request to take Lieutenant Command Suzuki and Lieutenant Dana with me as new crew for the Wheel of Law,” David said.

“Your request is granted. You are dismissed.” Further mechanical whirring sounded from the pillar, and then the door to the chamber opened.

Knight slipped out of the stifling room the moment he could. A pressure was building inside his chest, inside his head. Years of training told him he had to always appear strong and in control, so he forced himself not to stumble or lean on anyone. His mind controlled his body. It was his choice whether to let weakness take over.

Raziel had turned him into a breeding commodity. While the thought of women lining up outside his room, waiting to sleep with him was amusing—and arousing—it left a hollow pit in his stomach. Because maybe Rachel was right about the Third Commandment. About … everything. She’d been right about the Angels and all they’d done to him. And now, this Shekhinah, their legacy, was trying to breed him like livestock. And the thought had made him lightheaded.

Rachel turned to him and put a hand on his shoulder, supporting him. Damn empath could sense his unease.

“Hey, don’t think you’re going to be mating with him, either!” Phoebe said. “This is fucking ridiculous!”

Rachel rolled her eyes and released Knight with a sigh.

He nodded at her. “I’m fine.” Then he turned to Phoebe. “And you have nothing to worry about.”

Leah cleared her throat. “This isn’t really the place for this.”

“Aye,” David said, and led them back out of the chamber.

Outside, the Sentinels saluted. “Captain McGregor.” How the void did they already know? Was the Shekhinah in communication with them? “We are to escort you to the Wheel of Law.”

David returned the salute and motioned everyone to follow. The Sentinels led the way. Knight supposed he would have to stop thinking of them as ‘the Sentinels’. He was one of them now.

“You didn’t tell it about Raziel,” he whispered to Rachel.

“David and I agreed no one can know,” she whispered back. “I guess we’ll be transferring the … cargo to our new ship in secret.”

So they were still taking the Angel with them. That was just fantastic.

CHAPTER NINETY-EIGHT

December 16th

So I have become a Sentinel. A guardian of the Mizraim Empire. Once, I looked on such men and women with the awe any citizen feels in their presence. Then, in time, it became disdain. I saw Sentinels as a symptom of the disease afflicting mankind—the disease of blind faith and subservience.

Victory had been in Caleb’s grasp, and it had been snatched away once again. He suspected Rachel Jordan. The girl had gone from a minor annoyance to an enduring nemesis he couldn’t quite squash. He doubted he’d ever had more dislike for someone he’d never met. The Ark would have been his, it was his. And then, without warning, a hundred Angels had showed up and taken over the ship.

After the shock had faded, Caleb was forced to call Apollo again. The man had threatened Caleb’s family unless he acquired the Ark, and without it, he had nothing to cow Apollo with. But the scientist had seemed less shocked than Caleb would have expected at the news. His face never faltered.

“You will take your ship and go to Asherah. Contact Aluf Mishma Lamport and work together to secure the Ark against this new threat.”

And Apollo had cut the line.

Caleb sat on his cot in the Empyrean Throne, Jericho’s flagship, idly stroking Rebekah’s naked back.

So Apollo had contacts in the Asheran Confederacy. The military, no less. An Aluf was a general, as near as Caleb knew. Or part general, part dictator might be more accurate. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. It would explain where Apollo had learned so much about cybernetics. The Asherans had long since abandoned the Commandments, including the First. Rumors abounded that nearly every citizen, or least any with wealth, had some amount of cybernetic enhancements on them.

Redeemers—in fact, most of Mizraim—would call cyborgs the worst of all khapiru. They would call them anathema that needed to be destroyed. Redeemers didn’t wash the sins of cyborgs. Such creatures were beyond saving, they believed. Of course, Caleb was one of them. Apollo had first replaced his eyes with cybernetic implants. Caleb could see in near total darkness, scan information for future use, make video recordings, and—his favorite trick—use his vision to scan through ladies’ clothes and see the flesh beneath. After the eyes, Apollo had put some kind of chip in Caleb’s head—supposedly to block telepaths from scanning him. Caleb had his doubts.

He sighed.

The Throne was headed for Asheran space. If the Sentinels had any idea what he was about, they’d hunt him down and destroy him at any cost. An alliance between the Conglomerate, or even one megacorp, and the Asheran Confederacy would prove devastating to Mizraim. He supposed that was Apollo’s plan. Create chaos and sweep in to pick up the pieces. To the victor go the spoils.

And Caleb was a fool to have ever started down this road. He should have taken Ayelet and the kids and fled to some backwater world where he could live a normal life.

Of course, he was kidding himself. Even if he was satisfied with an average existence—and he wouldn’t be—Ayelet would never accept one. Not after tasting the benefits of extreme wealth. No, he’d let his family become accustomed to life at the top, and now he had to keep them there.

“Captain Ellis to Mr. Gavet.”

Caleb frowned, then tapped his comm. “Gavet here. Go ahead, Captain.”

“We’ve arrived at the system you designated. An Asheran Leviathan is drawing up alongside us.”

A Leviathan. God help them. Caleb blew out a long breath before answering. “Extend an invitation to the Aluf. I’ll meet him in the observation deck in half an hour.”

Caleb cut the comm and glanced down at Rebekah. He briefly considered whether they had time for a quick romp, but decided there was no way. Instead, he went to the armoire and grabbed his fanciest coat. Black. He always looked good in black.

Rebekah stirred as he dressed, but didn’t wake. Caleb sighed, then bent and kissed the back of her head. “Sorry for getting you into this, too.”

He left and took the lift up. The observation deck was a dome atop the Empyrean Throne, just above the bridge. Reinforced smart glass gave them a three-sixty degree view of space around them. This system was uninhabited, but from it one could see a brilliant fiery nebula, like a vision of heaven itself. Maybe Lamport chose the system for that reason. Maybe it was just a convenient meeting place, just inside Asheran space.

Of course, Asheran space was now expanding. The Confederacy had begun a push into Mizraim territory, starting with the outlaying galaxies. An initial offensive had gone well for Asherah, he’d heard. At least until the Sentinels showed up in force. The self-righteous police and military force that guarded Mizraim had a justified reputation as the finest fighting force in history. Caleb had hoped to match them with Gibborim cyborgs, but he’d had to all but abandon that project after the disaster on Gehenna. One more thing to blame Rachel Jordan for.

A few minutes later, the lift whirred again, reappeared. A man strode forward, flanked by four guards. Three men and one woman. Each guard had silver armor that looked like skin. On their faces, metal protrusions stuck out from their real skin. Caleb couldn’t tell whether the silver was grafted to them, some kind of form-fitting armor, or an actual cybernetic replacement of part of their bodies. The woman had purple hair, and he caught himself fantasizing about trying to get her out of that armor—it left so little to the imagination.

The Aluf himself wore heavier armor, chrome-colored, with a helm that boasted a cross of glowing light instead of a faceplate. The man stalked forward and offered a hand, and Caleb realized his arms weren’t armored—they were cybernetic replacements. Machines. Blatant cybernetics.

Caleb took his hand and shook it. He’d feared the man would try to give some crass demonstration of strength, but the Aluf didn’t squeeze his hand, just shook it like a normal person.

“Welcome to the Empyrean Throne, Aluf.” Caleb waved for the man to sit with him at the table.

As they did so, he noticed the guards had some kind of spinal grafts protruding from their backs. He couldn’t say what the implants were doing, but he doubted it would be good. A sudden thought flashed through his mind. Could Apollo be one of these people? Was he working for Asherah, subverting the Conglomerate to bring their ends closer together? It made all too much sense. He’d played Caleb, teasing him with technological advancements, while really pursuing Asheran ends.

“Aluf Lamport, I am certain you’ve heard by now the rumors that the Ark has been taken by Angels.”

“I have.”

“I suspect Asherah, even more than Jericho Corp, does not want to see a return of the Days of Glory.”

The man raised an eyebrow like that went without saying. Since the Angels would likely destroy every cyborg in existence, Caleb supposed it did.

“What I propose is simple—an alliance between the Confederacy and the Conglomerate. We work together to take down Mizraim, and then, when we find the Ark, we take it back from the Angels and ensure the Days of Glory remain behind us.”

The Aluf nodded. “And the end result for you? Your ultimate goal, Mr. Gavet?”

To the point. Caleb liked that. “Exclusive and favorable trade agreements for Jericho Corp with Asherah. And, of course, you will help ensure Jericho becomes the leading voice of the entire Conglomerate.”

Besides, it was in Caleb’s best interest to see the Angels, the Commandments, and the Sentinels all buried.

“You are one of us,” Lamport said.

Caleb stiffened. Had the man been able to scan him for cybernetics? Some kind of internal sensors—or cybernetic eyes with more features than Caleb’s own. Maybe that had been Apollo’s plan all along. One more layer of the trap. “Indeed. So you know we share common interests.”

The Aluf stood and offered his hand again. “So we do.”

CHAPTER NINETY-NINE

December 17th

I was wrong about the Sentinels, of course. I mistook a dedication to duty for subservience, principles of honor for blindness. Even as I fell for David all over again, I thought him a fool, a man in need of saving.

“Are you sure about this, pretty-boy?” Phoebe asked.

Knight ran a hand through his hair. It was long, reaching almost to his shoulders. He’d grown it out since he’d left the Gibborim. He’d become a mercenary. Rachel had called his hair, his style, an affectation. And she was right. God, he was getting tired of realizing how many things she’d been right about. He had been a selfish fool, caring only about himself, sulking in sorrow over the wrongs done to him. But the universe was bigger than that. While he ran around Gehenna murdering anyone in his way, Rachel had traveled the known universe trying to save mankind. And if she’d made mistakes, at least she made them for the right reasons.

Knight wasn’t sure he had ever done anything for the right reasons. At least, not until he’d decided to save Rachel.

“Do it,” he said.

Phoebe shrugged. “Yup, yup. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” The razor buzzed as she trimmed away Knight’s hair. It tingled against his scalp as strands of his hair fell away and landed in his lap.

“You know,” she said when it was done, “I actually really liked the tangled mess the way it was.”

“You probably should have said that before giving me a buzz cut.”

“Yup, yup. Better late than never.” She blew on his head, spraying stray hairs around the room.

Knight closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It was time he left his old life behind. He was no longer Gibborim, and he hadn’t been in a long time. He was not an assassin. He wasn’t the mercenary anymore. Rachel no longer paid him for protection. And yet, here he was, by her side, a part of her crusade.

He stood and grabbed an undershirt to put on, then slipped on the Sentinel jacket. The black-on-black uniform of those who served. Military, a real military. Just as he now had real quarters on this battleship, a real commission. He slid a finger up the seam of the jacket and the nanobots bonded, sealing it airtight.

“Knight … How can you commit so quickly to this? You’ve bounced from one thing to the next like leaving your old lives behind means nothing. Is it so easy for you to make changes in your life?”

Was that insecurity? Was she asking about him becoming a Sentinel, or wondering whether he’d leave her the same as she saw him leaving one mission after another?

He stalked over, grabbed her around the waist, pulled her in for a deep kiss. At last, he pulled away. “I was born for this.”

Literally. He’d been trained almost since birth to be a soldier. He just hadn’t known the cause. The Gibborim had taught him discipline and killer instinct. They had made him a weapon. Only now, finally, that weapon was aimed where it belonged. Like Rachel, he would fight for things that mattered, instead of only for corrupt governments or for himself. The Sentinels existed to protect mankind from any threat. In his whole life, he had never considered such grandiose concerns—and Rachel was right, he should have. Phoebe and those like her were heroes, fighting for something so much greater than themselves.

“You should be happy,” he said. “I’m finally seeing things your way.”

“Yup, yup. You’ve skipped the training, the education, the hard work and been promoted straight up to—”

“Never think I’ve skipped the hard work, Phoebe. My life has been nothing but struggle. Just because you had different struggles doesn’t mean—”

She held up her hands. “Right, sorry. Forgot about the ‘whole raised in a ninja school’ thing for a split second. It’s just … I worked most of my life to get here, with my brother, you know? I mean, I get you just took a different road to reach the same place … But some of the others are going to resent you being promoted to such a rank without going to the Academy on Hazaroth. It’s fine, though. I’ll help you get caught up on all the things you need to know. Like the benefits of certain activities in zero-G.”

“Wait, what?” That sounded interesting.

“Well, certain sections of the ship aren’t affected by the AG field. And we’re able to reserve time in those sections for … educational activities.”

He chuckled at the mental image. “Uh, you should probably put us on the list, then. I’m all about education.”

“Yup, yup. Believe me, I’ll be a great teacher.”

He nodded. “I should get up to the bridge.”

“Hey, Knight. You look hot in the uniform.”

“You too. I mean, you look even hotter out of uniform. Naked, I mean.”

“Yup. Got the innuendo the first time, big guy. And speaking of naked, you never really said anything about … you know.”

The Shekhinah? What the fuck could he say to that? He shook his head. Maybe, once, he might have agreed to share his DNA with any willing partner who’d lined up. But now, with Phoebe … He’d turn away from a hundred women for just one. And the oddest thing was, it wasn’t even a hard choice.

“You don’t have anything to worry about.”

“Yup. Fine. Then neither do you. For the moment.”

Knight laughed and headed up to the bridge. Like the Logos, the Wheel of Law was a Tribulation-class Sentinel battleship, meaning its design was similar. Most of Knight’s time on the Logos was spent in the brig—or fighting against Sentinels—so it was odd to stride onto the bridge like he belonged there.

David had taken over the pilot’s chair, despite being a captain now. People always fell back where they were most comfortable. Maybe that’s why Rachel stood right beside him. She’d lost part of herself in giving up the Ark. Knight hoped she could find it again, the same way she’d eventually led him to himself. It was because of Rachel he could stand here, proud of the man he was. Of the uniform he wore.

She wore it too, and the form-fitting black armor looked good on her.

She turned to look at him and actually jerked back. “God, Knight! I didn’t even recognize you.”

David glanced at him, too. “Aye, lad looks like a real soldier, now.”

Knight gave David a mocking salute. And David returned it with a real one. He’d just saluted him. Knight. A soldier. He blew out a breath and folded his arms across his chest. Odd. Who would have thought such a small gesture of respect would matter to him at all? He shouldn’t care. But …

“It’s good you’re here, Knight,” David said. “We just got a message. Asherah has arrived in the Eden System and they’ve begun landing troops there. It seems they intend to claim the planet for the Confederacy. Mizraim isn’t going to let that happen. I just spoke to Imperator Vibbard and he’s authorized us to return to Eden.”

Knight caught himself looking to Rachel. He had fallen into the habit of turning to her in these situations. But she had placed herself under David’s command, and so had he. And maybe it was for the best. David had the training and command experience. It was what he did best.

And what Knight did best … Well, he would do that when they reached Eden.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED

And maybe David did need saving. But less so than myself. If I saved him or Knight, the two of them did the same for me a hundred times over.

The Conduit route to Eden was well hidden. A single passage, always behind you, only reachable by a sudden sharp turn—a dangerous maneuver given the walls of the Conduit could sheer off a ship’s hull. And no one knew what would happen if you breached the Conduit—Angels just said not to. Ever. That was part of the Second Commandment.

Still, finding Eden the first time was the real challenge. Now, David was able to quickly return to planet. He jumped the Wheel of Law out of the Conduit Gate on the edge of the Eden System.

Almost immediately a swarm of Asheran drones converged on the Wheel. A Sentinel battleship, a pair of cruisers, and several destroyers were engaged with an entire fleet of Asheran ships—including three Leviathans. They’d come as soon as able, but already David’s people were hard pressed.

“Angels above,” Phoebe swore.

“Take out those drones!” David said. He jerked the joystick to try to dart behind an icy planetoid on the system’s edge.

His scanners showed one of the Leviathans breaking off to pursue the Wheel. Good. Any ships they diverted from the Sentinel fleet would aid his beleaguered mates.

“It looks like ten Asheran cruisers,” Rachel said. David had assigned her to scanners, and she took to it quickly.

“Prep the ion cannons, but soften them up with a barrage from the pulse cannons.” The pulse cannons would do a good job of tearing through the kinetic shields, and without those, an ion beam would detonate on the Leviathan hull with the force of a nuclear explosion.

The Leviathan crested around the edge of the moon.

“Incoming missile barrage!” Phoebe said.

“Laser batteries, take those out.” A Tribulation-class ship had thirty defensive laser batteries, operated by three different crewmen. David could afford to direct his attention elsewhere.

Like piloting the ship and a squad of drones. The lightning-fast drones were small, unmanned fighters—ideal for shooting down missiles, or raining MAG rounds on the enemy hull. David steered them right for the Leviathan. They needed a quick kill. They needed a statement.

The Asherans thought they could come in here and intimidate the Sentinels. Eden was in the Milky Way, deep within Mizraim space. An invasion like this was bold—and he intended to show them it was too bold.

Turrets on the Leviathan turned on the drones. A stream of plasma toroids spewed from the turrets in a crisscross that blanketed the sky. Drones disappeared from his screen faster than he could blink.

Defensive plasma batteries? That was new.

“Phoebe, bring the ion cannons to bear.”

The Leviathan had tried to dodge her barrage of pulses, but most struck home, and there was no shooting those down.

“They’ve prepped their own ion cannons!”

David banked the Wheel, tried to get the planetoid back between the two ships. But there was no bloody way it would be enough.

The ion stream traveled at them so fast he felt it explode over their hull before he even saw the beam. His console flashed as kinetic shields failed all over the Wheel. Thermonuclear explosions cascaded along the ship, breaching multiple decks.

Shite! Shite! Shite!

A dozen hull breaches, probably hundreds dead.

“Where are those ion cannons, Phoebe?”

“I’m trying! We lost a power relay. I’ve only got two working cannons and they’re on the starboard side.”

That, he could do something about. He banked heavily, jerking the ship around. It meant opening themselves to a broadside of MAG rounds—which were devastating without their shields—but he saw no choice. They needed to make this Leviathan bleed. Now.

“Missile tubes one-o-one through two-hundred, full barrage! Phoebe, fire the ion cannons the moment the missiles hit.”

As expected, the Leviathan defensive batteries concentrated on the incoming missiles. The antimatter warheads would cause serious damage if they impacted, but nothing like ion cannons.

Phoebe fired the cannons. The ion stream was a blue-white beam that, if you didn’t know better, might look like a laser. But it fired ions at near the speed of light. The beam slammed into the Leviathan and ignited a cascade of explosions along her hull.

A power relay on the Wheel blew out. Ion cannons used so much bloody energy.

“I’m reading multiple hull breaches on the Leviathan,” Rachel said. “But it looks like they’ve still got some shielding.”

What the holy universe? He’d fought a Leviathan a few months ago and it hadn’t been this tough. These ships had had some upgrades recently, it seemed.

With current power levels they’d never be able to use the ion cannons.

David swallowed. He needed to end this as quickly as possible.

“Prepare MAG cannons for close firing. We’re going to strafe them.”

He accelerated as rapidly as he could, diving the Wheel of Law right along the Leviathan, barely five hundred meters apart. Enemy drones tried to intercept, but the Wheel’s own drones kept them at bay.

“Sir, the plasma batteries!” Phoebe shouted at him.

“Aye.”

The Leviathan’s defensive batteries ripped into the Wheel’s hull, tearing open more breaches. His maneuver was off rotation. Battleships didn’t strafe one another for just this reason. Defensive batteries were powerful short-range weapons designed to shoot down enemy missiles, but they could rain fiery hell on a ship foolish enough to draw in range.

But desperate times called for an off rotation plan.

Phoebe worked frantically, as he knew she would. The Wheel’s own laser batteries carved slices out of the Leviathan and MAG rounds pounded through the enemy ship. A large enough breach opened she fired an antimatter warhead inside the Leviathan—a near impossible shot. Crippling explosions cascaded through Asheran ship as David jerked the Wheel away, peeling off.

The Leviathan detonated, the explosion scorching the planetoid.

He breathed a long sigh.

“Casualty estimate?”

“I …” Rachel stammered. “I think we may have lost as many as two hundred crewmen …”

Two hundred? Angels above, what had he done? His first battle as captain had also become the biggest disaster of his career. Two hundred Sentinels dead. They had taken down the Leviathan, but the Wheel of Law bore severe damage throughout and he’d just lost near a third of her crew.

And there were still a dozen Asheran ships out there—apparently with a technological edge.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED ONE

Still, I like to think I have been a positive influence on the lives of the people around me. Last night I found Knight and Phoebe in the zero-G chamber playing moon ball. And he was laughing—Knight! Not the dark chuckle I once knew from him, but a full-bodied laugh of the kind I’d expect in a boy.

David had given the crew several minutes to get the ship back in order before steering them toward the greater battle. Rachel could feel how much the wait had pained him, but, in all honesty, she doubted it was enough time. The Wheel needed days to repair, not minutes to patch a few breaches and reroute a few power relays.

Knight stood by her side, and she could feel tension wafting off him. He felt useless, and she knew the feeling. Manning the scanners might have been important work, but after controlling the awesome power of the Ark, it felt insignificant.

“I can feel the holes in the ship,” he said.

She glanced at him. She wished they’d had more time to map his psionic potential. They didn’t even really know what rank he was. His telekinetic ability seemed to give him an intuitive spatial sense. What else would it let him do? How far could he reach?

“See that ringed planet there? Can you feel that?”

Knight closed his eyes a moment, then shook his head.

So nothing beyond his immediate vicinity, then. “Okay, don’t worry about it. What else can you feel?”

He shook his head again. “That’s it.”

Well, it was a start.

“We’re going back in,” David said. “Brace yourselves. We’re going after that Asheran cruiser engaged with the Eternal Light. I want a tight barrage of missiles followed by concentrated pulse cannon fire. Take them down before they even know what hit them.”

David’s guilt, anger, and fear almost choked her. It wafted around the bridge like a cloud of darkness, threatening to swallow her. It ran so deep she had to look around to see if anyone one else was affected. But she was the only empath on the bridge, and she alone bore the weight of such burden—or shared it with David.

She rose from her seat and stalked over to whisper in his ear. “What happened is not your fault, Mac. It’s war and we were caught off guard.”

“Take your station, lass,” he whispered back.

“Mac …”

“On scanners, Rachel!”

She sighed and started back for the console.

“Rachel,” Knight said. “I think you’d better see this.”

She dashed over to examine the screen. Another fleet had jumped through the Conduit Gate. A brief scan identified them as Jericho and Zebulun ships, a battleship and seven cruisers.

“Conglomerate fleet behind us!” she shouted.

David ground his teeth so loudly she could hear it from four meters away. “Bloody void. Continue with the planned strike. Let them come to us.”

He steered them in toward the Asheran cruiser. As soon as it realized they were closing in, the foreign ship tried to make a break for it. But there was no outrunning the Wheel.

“Good morning boys,” Phoebe said. “I’ve got your breakfast right here.” She launched missiles from forty tubes at the cruiser, and followed it up with pulse cannons. Such concentrated fire broke past the enemy drones and kinetic shields in seconds. Pulses shredded the cruiser and a few seconds later it detonated like a small star.

Almost instantly the explosion began sucking itself back in. The Singularity Drive was consuming the ship. David steered the Wheel clear of debris. Get too close, the singularity would eat them, too.

A cruiser was only a stage down from a battleship, but it seemed there was a galaxy of difference between a Leviathan and a cruiser—at least when it came to standing up to concentrated fire from a Tribulation-class ship.

She blew out a breath, tried to focus on her assigned task. This was what they were here for. Fighting this war. Except, she was no soldier. She’d signed on to the Sentinels out of last desperation—there seemed no other road left to her. David believed it his duty to save Mizraim from the Asheran invasion. And Rachel’s own actions might well have precipitated this war—uncovering the Ark and then Eden. She’d been a fool, though, to think that responsibility somehow meant she’d be able to do anything here.

Knight might have belonged on this ship, but she didn’t. She’d done what she set out to do—found the secrets of the Angels. Look where it had led. People were dead, and humanity no better off.

She shook herself. God, was that David’s despair sinking into her? If she wasn’t careful, she’d drown in it.

Focus on the task. She stared at the scanner. “I … The Conglomerate ships will be able to join the battle in approximately two minutes.”

“Signal the Eternal Light.” He pointed at an enemy cruiser. “We’re taking that one out together. We need to thin their ranks before the reinforcements arrive. We’ll draw the enemy fire and the Light can move in for the kill.”

“I like moving in for the kill,” Phoebe said. “It’s my favorite part. Drawing enemy fire is much less—”

“Phoebe!” David shouted. “Not the time!”

They dove toward the cruiser, firing another barrage of missiles. The Light followed David’s tactics, coming up under the cruiser’s belly and blowing them to bits. Another singularity opened—another hole that would consume itself and anything that drew close.

The way the Light fluttered on her screen, still for a moment before breaking away, it looked like it had been a bit too near. A kilometer closer, and the Sentinels might have lost a cruiser.

The Sword of Radiance crashed into one of the enemy Leviathans. Devastating explosions washed over both ships, followed by a series of implosions. The two battleships disappeared from her screen.

“Mac—”

“I saw it.” David shook his head, but she could feel his doubt, his guilt.

The Conglomerate fleet drew closer.

“So, uh, Captain?” Phoebe said. “Now would be the time for a daring plan to save the day. Right? I mean, I like saving the day, so I’d be happy to help.”

David turned to look at her, then at Rachel, and she knew what he would say before he said it. “There is no plan, lass. We cannot win this battle.”

“I disagree,” Knight said.

Everyone turned to him.

“That battleship is the Conglomerate lead ship, right?”

“Aye, lad, but we don’t have the firepower to take on another battleship right now.”

Knight tapped a button on his suit and his helmet formed over his face. “We will.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWO

My decisions, my actions, have led us all here. The Angels are awake, and one of their own lies hidden in the isolation wing of the brig. I cannot guess the end result of all this—history will be my judge.

Knight’s skills were wasted on a bridge, in ship-to-ship combat. Up close and personal, that was where he belonged. And if the drones could get him past the battleship’s defenses in a small boarding pod, he could make a difference.

A half-dozen Sentinels were in the pod with him, but he found himself wishing Phoebe was one of them. Of course, as the weapon’s officer, her role at such a time was on the bridge. Besides, it was better if she was safe. He could do what he needed to do without worrying about her.

“Ready?” one of the Sentinels asked him.

Knight nodded, and the pod launched. The force of departure threw him back against his seat. Not much inertia negation on these boarding pods. Through the smart glass he watched the endless stream of missiles, lasers, and drones. From in the pod—a container no more than five meters on a side—it all felt so much more vast. Space, the planets, and the enormous ship fast approaching.

For a brief moment he wondered if he had crossed beyond his depth. But this was why he was here. Fear was in the mind, and he was in control of his mind. People needed him.

There was nothing he could do about the incoming fire. He had to trust David to protect him—trust Phoebe to ensure they made it to the battleship. Knight would take it from there.

Reverse thrusters fired a split-second before the pod impacted the Jericho ship, slowing their descent just enough to keep from smashing themselves. Sizzling hissed outside the pod. Drilling lasers cutting a hole in the hull.

Ten seconds more and the hatch popped open, revealing the battleship interior. Knight dove through the opening in a roll. Security personnel opened fire at him with MAG rifles. The rounds bounced off his armor. He could get used to that. He shot one with a pulse pistol.

The other Sentinels shot down the remaining security before Knight could draw a bead on them. His comrades on this mission were good—a pleasant boon.

“Which way to the bridge?” Knight said.

One of the Sentinels indicated a corridor. The Jericho ship was brighter than a Sentinel one, the pale gray walls and the large light panes creating less sense of military oppression. These were corporate suits playing soldier. A choice they would regret.

Knight took off running down the corridor. Seconds later a squad of Jericho security streamed into the hall. Knight vaulted onto the wall, then off it, landing in their midst. He kicked out a man’s knee and twisted another’s wrist, pulling the guard in front of him as a human shield. MAG rounds tore through the poor bastard before his comrades realized what happened.

“Shit!” one of them shouted.

Knight chopped a guard in the throat and shot another in the face. A man leveled a MAG at him. Knight bent backward to dodge the slug and swept the man’s feet. He stomped on the fallen man’s head.

Sentinel pulses took down two more men.

Knight nodded at his companions, and they charged forward, coming to a hatch. A Sentinel attached an explosive charge to the wall, then backed away. A second later it detonated, and the hatch swung free. Knight followed the man up the ladder onto a higher level.

From the sound of it, security had swarmed beneath him. Other Sentinels were holding them off. It was fine. Knight just needed to get to the bridge.

The Sentinel ahead threw open another hatch and dove out. Knight heard pulse fire and MAG rounds above. He crested the rise in time to see two security officers fall.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Ensign Jackson.”

Knight nodded at Jackson. “Nice work. That the bridge?” He pointed at the door ahead.

Jackson nodded, and moved to place another charge on the door.

Another of his Sentinels formed in behind Knight.

“The others?” he asked.

“Falconer fell, the others are holding back the security below.”

“Fine. Hold this position. Jackson and I will take the bridge.”

“Sir, there’s likely to be at least ten people in there.”

Knight shrugged. “Then it won’t take us long.”

The door blew, and Knight dashed inside, pulse pistol blazing. It didn’t matter who he killed here. All that mattered was protecting Rachel and Phoebe and the other Sentinels. He rolled to the side, behind a console, then grabbed a man around the neck, choking him.

The bridge crew were on their feet, shouting. Several fired MAGs at him. Rounds impacted his suit, even through his human shield, but they had no force left in them. Knight flipped over the console and kicked one man while shooting another.

“Kill the bastard!” an unarmed man shouted.

“He’s too damned fast!” one of the soldiers cried.

Jackson shot the soldier.

A man tried to grab Knight. Knight broke his wrist, spun him, and snapped his neck. Another foe fell to fire from the doorway—the Sentinel outside lending a hand.

That unarmed man—Knight had seen his picture. Caleb Gavet, the one Rachel was worried about. He could kill the man and solve the problem … but Gavet might be more useful as a hostage. Knight flipped over another console, shot a man, and caught Gavet in the ribs with a tight hook. He heard the bones crack under his blow, and the man fell to his knees with a cry.

Knight elbowed him in the face, and Gavet went down.

“Get on the comm,” he told Jackson. “Tell them we have the bridge.” He glanced at the uniform of one of the men he’d shot. The captain. No hostage there. “Tell them we have Caleb Gavet and they must stand down. In fact, tell the whole Conglomerate fleet to stand down, or Jericho loses another Chairman.”

He tapped his own comm. “Knight to McGregor. I’ve taken the bridge on the Empyrean Throne.”

“Well, that was fast, lad.”

“I was motivated.”

“Glad to hear it. We’ll swing back around to pick you up once we’ve dealt with the Asherans. McGregor out.”

Fine. So he was stuck on this ship for a little while. “Get the others up here. We have to hold this position.”

On the floor, Gavet groaned, holding his busted nose. Blood streamed between his fingers.

Knight yanked him to his feet. “And you. Tell your people to follow my orders and you might live long enough to get some nanobot regenerators for that.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THREE

Soon, perhaps, I will have to decide what to do with Raziel. He manipulated me, brought the Conglomerate down on the Ark … but in the end, he also helped us escape. Who is this … being? How am I to relate to someone who has lived God alone knows how many life times?

Rachel had to hand it to Knight. He knew how to work out of an impossible situation. He’d made it a habit she hoped he could keep. And David moved like God himself had breathed new life into him. She could feel the subtle shift of his emotions from despair to determination, and now, finally, hope, as he shot down another Asheran cruiser.

One Leviathan remained, but now that the Conglomerate reinforcements had withdrawn, it seemed a lot less inclined to engage the Wheel of Law. Maybe it had no idea how badly damaged the ship was. If so, she thanked God for the blessing.

The remaining Sentinel cruisers and destroyers converged on the Asherans while their battleship began to retreat for the Gate.

“Are we pursuing?” Phoebe asked. “Because I’m all for kicking them while they’re down.”

“We’re pretty much down, too, lass.”

“Well, we could still kick them, it’ll just look funny.”

David shook his head. “Let them go. We’ve lost enough people today. Rendezvous with the Empyrean Throne. I want Caleb Gavet brought aboard. That bugger is not getting out of our sight any time soon.”

An hour later, Rachel strode down the corridor. David had agreed to let her handle the interrogation, as soon as Leah had finished treating Gavet’s wounds. From what she’d heard, Knight had been … enthusiastic in subduing Caleb. Not that she blamed him. The man had apparently masterminded the Gibborim experiments.

With Rachel’s empathic gifts, she made an ideal candidate for interrogations. A true telepath would have been better, but the Wheel only had one, and she’d died in a hull breach during the battle. Besides, Caleb had been dogging her steps more than long enough. It was time they met face-to-face. She had things to ask him.

A sudden wave of dizziness swept over her, and she stumbled, bracing herself against the wall. Her knees gave out and she fell. A pounding built in her temples and her psionic nerves flared, picking up bursts of emotions from all over the ship. Fear and pain and relief and lust and grief all mingled into an emotional ride of highs and lows. She was lightheaded with it.

Release me.

What the void?

Ms. Jordan.

“Raziel?” God, that was his voice. He was in her head. “Go to hell.”

She tried to rise, but the corridor spun and she slipped back down. Bile scorched her throat, and her senses winked on and off. In the next room, a Sentinel grieved the loss of her best friend. Beyond that, she could feel a tech’s anxiety that he wouldn’t get the repairs done before the Asherans returned.

Whatever Raziel was doing to her mind was throwing both her mundane and psionic senses out of whack. Son of a bitch wasn’t going to give her a choice. They had bound him in a special cell of the brig, sealed away from all other prisoners.

She struggled to her feet, bracing herself against the wall. For a second it felt like the AG field had gone awry and the whole ship spun. She stumbled toward the lift, using the wall for support. “Brig,” she said to the computer.

The lift lowered her down, deep into the ship’s bowels. The brig was dark—Sentinels offered minimal illumination to prisoners. Perhaps the darkness was meant to keep them subdued.

Rachel bypassed Caleb’s cell, sparing him only a glance. She’d deal with him soon.

Release me.

“I’m coming, dammit!”

Release me, Ms. Jordan.

The pounding in her head continued to build, growing stronger as she neared the Angel’s cell. She punched an access code into the panel, and the isolation wing opened. By the holy universe, she’d space the bastard if he didn’t get out of her head.

All right, she had to get a hold of herself. She couldn’t face an enemy, face an interrogation, from a position of weakness. His psionic attack had compromised her, but she was in control of this situation. She took three deep breaths, then slapped the console to turn the cell’s smart glass transparent.

Raziel was bound to the cell wall, reinforced titanium shackles holding his wrists, ankles, and wings in place. The isolation cell itself was supposed to block telepathy, but apparently it wasn’t strong enough to stop an Angel.

“All right, Raziel, you got me here. What?”

“You cannot hold me, Ms. Jordan.”

She rubbed her head. If he had called her here for more of his petty arrogance … “Pretty sure we are holding you, Angel.”

“You should not do so. You do not realize what you risk.”

She shrugged. “Fine. Then tell me. No more cryptic messages, no more ambiguous warnings. No commandments, covenants, or orders. Give us the honest truth. Give me the truth. All of it. Let the secrets go, then we’ll talk about letting you go.”

The Angel sighed and lowered his head. “You don’t even understand your own request. You ask for knowledge you are not ready to comprehend and would not want to if you could. You complain of mystery, when the failing is in your own mind’s ability to understand.”

“Don’t feed me that dark matter. You want us to believe you’re some kind of superior being and you can’t even explain things in terms we can understand? Fine. Then stay here until you rot.” Or until they figured out what the void to do with him.

She turned to leave. Maybe Caleb would be more cooperative. At the very least, he should be less annoying.

“Rachel! You must release me.”

She spun back on him. “So now I’m Rachel, not Ms. Jordan? More manipulations. You think humans so simple you can move us like pawns—you said so yourself. You seem to have underestimated us.”

Have I? Prove it.

She grabbed her head, shaking it against the sudden intrusion. “You’re the one bound in a cell. And stay the fuck out of my mind! You want me to let you go? Not likely, Angel. You used your one good deed—driving off the Adversary—as an excuse to enslave mankind under your theocracy for millennia. Your so-called Days of Glory ushered us into a mindset of servitude, not only of the body, but of the mind. You indoctrinated us so that we would teach our young whatever you wanted us to believe, and they would teach their young, and so on, until your will became the only truth we could imagine.”

“Had we done this as completely as you imply, we might not be having this conversation.”

She chuckled. “You mean because you failed to breed the insolence out of me? Not for lack of trying, I assume. You wanted us to worship your kind as gods, and you destroyed us to do so.”

“An ore must be melted down before it can be forged into something stronger.”

“Something useful, you mean! What do you even want with humanity? Why enslave us at all? Was it an ego thing? Did it inflate your sense of self-importance to see yourself lording over your mortal subjects? Why the experiments, the genetic modifications? Why destroy our existing religious systems to create your own? Oh, wait. I know the answer to the last one—control. Control our ideology, control our very minds.”

“You think yourself very clever, Ms. Jordan, but you fail to answer the questions you raise for yourself, and neglect to even ask others. Why do you want sovereignty so much? What have you done with this precious freedom of thought and action in the last six hundred years? You’ve devolved into a series of fractious tribes squabbling over scraps left behind.”

Rachel slapped the glass, unable to control her anger. “Because we were never free. What you did to us lingered long after you had gone. The doctrines, the Covenant, the teachings—they spawned sycophantic cults of zealots like the Redeemers who believed whatever they were told because they had been told by their parents. You abused a position of trust and authority to undermine the essence of humanity.”

Raziel laughed. “The essence of humanity? You think before we came you were ideologically free? You think your own ancestors acted differently? You claim you were bound by mental chains because it is human nature to trust the teachings of your forbearers, and we indoctrinated your ancestors. Do you think those who lived on Eden in all the centuries before we came lived so differently? Not ruled by the beliefs their own culture and ancestors had imposed on them? Unaffected by the twisted, contradictory mores of social and religious tradition?”

Rachel paused, unable to answer that. Maybe humanity had always been like that—following what it had been told in the past. Maybe Raziel was saying the Angels had done nothing worse than what humans had always done to themselves. “You were an outside force that came in and overshadowed us. You denied us our true destiny.”

“We saved you from extinction. Your destiny, without us, was oblivion.”

And surely life was better than death, no matter what they had done. “It doesn’t give you the right to act however you please, Raziel. This war we face now is of your making. The doom we face is because of the ideological divide you created in mankind. And yes, maybe we would have had other divides if you hadn’t done so. Maybe mankind would be fighting over now-dead religions or beliefs or cultures, or just over territory. But you denied us the chance to find that out.” She stepped back from the glass. “Still, one day I hope I can expose you and all your kind for the false prophets you are. Then maybe, when mankind’s eyes are open at last, we can finally rise and stand on our own feet.”

She stormed out, trying not to let him get another word out.

You may yet fall under the weight of your own mistakes. Trust me. We would know.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FOUR

Raziel must have had other guises besides Galizur Blake. For six hundred years he pretended to be human while the other Angels slept. He didn’t wake them, though he could have. And I need to know why.

Rachel paused outside Caleb Gavet’s cell, trying to collect her thoughts after her run-in with Raziel. Despite being locked away in an isolation wing, the Angel was able to get inside her head. If she didn’t find a way to block his telepathic invasions, he could well cripple her at an inopportune time. Or perhaps he had chosen her, but he could reach any of them. The thought that the Angel could target any member of the crew, test any of their resolves, left her cold. How long before he found someone sympathetic to his plight? Even among Sentinels, most saw the Angels as divine.

She blew out a breath and tapped the smart glass, revealing herself to Gavet and allowing sound to pass. “Good morning, Mr. Gavet.”

“Is it morning? How can you even tell on a ship that never varies the lighting?”

She folded her hands behind her back and stared at the Jericho Chairman. Despite focusing all her attention on him, she couldn’t pick up his emotions. Odd, considering he was looking at her like he saw her naked. But not even a hint of lust wafting off him? Or fear, arrogance? Anything?

The bastard smirked and rose from his cot, then walked over to the glass. “When you look at me like that, I feel I owe you something. If you want to come in here, we could get to know each other better.”

“You know observation cameras watch your cell?”

“I can perform in front of an audience. In fact, I’ll bet some of the crew would pay to see the show.”

Rachel gave up trying to read the arrogant prick. Maybe he was a telepath and able to block her. It would explain how he’d gotten so far ahead in his company. But there was more than one way to get through to someone. Instead, she paced in front of the cell. Gavet watched her without moving.

“So, Mr. Gavet—”

“Please, call me Caleb, my dear.”

Fine, whatever. “All right, Caleb. Tell me what the Conglomerate is planning here.”

Caleb smiled and chewed on his thumb for a second. “You really have no idea what you’re dealing with, Rachel. Can I call you Rachel? Yes, of course I can. I’ve been hearing about your exploits for quite some time, you know. Wandering blindly around Gehenna, stirring up trouble with … well, basically everyone, everywhere. I met your brother, you know. Charming chap. Absolutely no sense of humor. Or style, but that’s another issue.”

Jeremiah? The thought of her brother working with this suit was almost amusing, except … except her instinct told her Jeremiah would crush this pompous ass like space gunk under his boot. But then, the more she watched Caleb, the more she began to wonder if it was her brother she should be afraid for. This man had the air of a buffoon, but he was something else.

“You’re working with my brother?”

Caleb chuckled. “Well, not anymore, my dear. When the Conglomerate joined Asherah, the Redeemers and Quasar Industries broke away. Actually, I hear the Redeemers have struck out on their own to hunt you now. They’re employing the Gogmagog. Maybe they think to usher in their own new Days of Glory, using the Ark as a launching point. Imagine a universe ruled by the Redeemers and policed by the Gogmagog. Actually, there’s nothing funny about that at all, is there? Petty, humorless punks with neither the wit nor the vision to rule themselves, much less anyone else.”

The Gogmagog? The Angel’s secret police were working for the Redeemers now. What the void was her father thinking? He must be off rotation if he thought he could control the Gogmagog. The two races were hated and feared throughout the universe, and for good reason. They were spies and assassins—the Gog were all but invisible, and the Magog were merciless trackers. Together they represented one of the darkest creations of the Angel theocracy, and one of the first to fall after the Vanishing. No one, not even the religiously devout, wanted them around. In some circles, she’d even heard whispers of people wanting to hunt them down and destroy them.

No organized genocide had ever followed, of course. They were created by the Angels, and to systematically destroy them would have been blasphemy in the eyes of most of humanity. Nor could someone undevout as Rachel sanction the unbiased destruction of sentient beings. But rumors always popped up about members of one of the two Races becoming a victim of hate crimes. And slowly, over the last six hundred years, they began to disappear into the shadows of society, eking out a small existence in the dregs.

Of course, the Gogmagog still existed—the organization no longer served a real purpose, or not its original one, at least. Now, she’d heard rumors of them working with Sentinels. She couldn’t say whether them serving Redeemers was more terrifying or less than the idea of them serving Mizraim.

“Are QI and the Redeemers—”

“No, dear,” Caleb said, and chuckled. “You don’t really see those two sticking together without the rest of the Conglomerate, do you? A marriage made in the void if I ever saw one. Speaking of which, last I heard you were an outlaw, a fugitive from the Sentinels. And yet here you wear their self-righteous uniform.”

Rachel scowled. There was nothing self-righteous about the Sentinel uniform. It was an honor, a symbol of those who put their lives on the line for the betterment of mankind and Mizraim. And putting it on, though it felt odd, had given her the smallest glimpse of the pride David felt in wearing it.

“You do realize what it symbolizes, Rachel, don’t you?”

“Black-on-black. A symbol of those who work in the darkest reaches of space to protect mankind from any threat.”

The Chairman shook his head, still smiling a little. “It symbolizes stagnation. Ties to ancient, antiquated traditions of the past. The Sentinels, like the Empire they serve, are bound to the Shekhinah. Yet another relic left behind by our former masters. You of all people should see the horror that represents. In remaining bound to the Angel device—to that machine—and to the Covenant itself, mankind is held in the same ideological chains that have enslaved us for the last three thousand years. Isn’t that what you were fighting against?”

It … It was what she’d been fighting against. But the universe had become so much more complicated than that. She’d promised David to help defend Mizraim against Asherah. She’d thrown herself to his cause because … because she loved him? Had she chosen a side based on her heart, not her convictions?

“You know I’m right, don’t you?” Caleb said. His alarming insight left her on edge. “Do you know what you’re even fighting for anymore, Rachel? Do you believe in the Covenant? I don’t think you do. Isn’t that what you were preaching against back at New Rome University?”

“I don’t preach! I was an instructor. I was trying to let young people think for themselves!”

“And do you? You condemn Asherah for what? For abandoning the Covenant? For thinking for themselves. For deciding the Angels were gone, and their rules and limitations should be as well.”

“Rampant cybernetic implants?” she asked. “Genetic modifications. God knows what else they do there.”

“Indeed. God does, and the Angels don’t. Nor should they. Asherah has cast aside the chains those false prophets placed around our necks. They stand or fall based on their own choices and actions. Maybe they will make mistakes, maybe they will push technology too fast. But they at least push it forward. This Empire you have thrown your lot in with represents the past you so hate. It is the next thing over from the Days of the Glory. So why do you side with them? Why follow blindly—the very thing you thought to save mankind from?”

Rachel tapped the smart glass to cut off the sound and backed away, shaking her head. No. No, she wasn’t following blindly. She had made a conscious choice to help David protect her people from … Asherah. From cyborgs. Because … Because of David. The truth was, the fear of cyborgs was so ingrained in Mizraim citizens, in even her, she experienced a visceral fear at even the thought of a human with machines running through him or her. And she took it for granted, despite all her lectures against Angel doctrine.

She’d condemned the Covenant, but in reality she’d only had the strength to try to break away from the Third Commandment. Man Shall Populate the Universe. The arrogance of it offended her. To tell humanity they had a duty to breed was … was …

She slunk away from the cells. But the other Commandments. Man Shall Adhere to the Bounds of the Conduit. Man Shall Not Alter the Form of Man. The Angels had condemned human cybernetic and genetic alteration because … because they had done it to themselves. But they’d done it to mankind. It set them apart from humans, made them like gods before men.

And maybe it was fear that bound them. The fear that humanity, given time and technological advancement, would become their equals. So they limited mankind’s ability to augment its basic nature, ensuring no one could challenge them. Ensuring Angels would remain gods before them.

And the Shekhinah, Mizraim itself, as the continuation of Angel rule, remained loyal to those precepts. So loyal that she, a Mizraim citizen, had grown up hating and fearing the Asheran Confederacy for rejecting the rules she herself loathed.

The sick realization of her own hypocrisy, her myopic vision of reality, left her weak, and she had to lean on the wall.

Was it even possible Caleb Gavet, that corporate suit who had dogged her steps from the day she’d arrived on Gehenna, was it possible he was … right? Was it possible he was the real hero of mankind? The one who could finally break them free of the mental chains that held them back?

And then, what was she fighting for?

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIVE

December 18th

I can tell David has severe doubts about keeping Raziel prisoner. Despite the Angel having acted against us on the Ark, David’s heart begs him to release the creature. I can only imagine how the rest of the crew would feel if they knew. How long before Raziel decides to contact one of them telepathically?

Six Sentinel captains sat at the table in David’s war room. He knew three of the others, but it was Jonathan Waller who drew his eyes. His former captain stared at him with the unveiled hatred of a man betrayed. Waller was a telepath, and David could feel the man’s wrath tingling at the edge of his mind—for certain, a deliberate sending. The Anakim was trying to intimidate him. And consider the size of Anakim, he imagined Waller did intimidate most men.

David tore his eyes from Waller and focused on the screen displaying the Eden System. “For the moment we’ve secured the planet. Imperator Vibbard has approved a research colony to be stationed on Eden itself to study the planet for the possibility of rehabilitation.”

Captain Hertz cleared her throat. “The reports I read said the planet was rife with … ghosts.”

Aye, which meant people probably did not really belong here at all. It was without doubt the reason Angels had hidden the world from mankind. But they couldn’t unfind the planet, and it represented a symbol. A symbol Mizraim needed to control. “They’re not ghosts, exactly, Hannah. Its psychic impressions left behind by so much death all at once. And that’s part of what the research colony will be studying. They’re going to limit Psych exposure to the planet and see if the energies can be cleansed or not.”

“Pointless posturing,” Waller said. The way he continued to glare at David made it all too clear who he blamed for everything wrong in the universe. “This planet has no strategic value. We waste our time here when we should be striking at the heart of the Triangulum galaxy. Take the fight to Asherah itself, before they expect it. Some of us real Sentinels belong on the front lines.”

“Eden does have value,” he said. “Not strategic, perhaps, but it serves as a beacon. In controlling it, we prove Mizraim is the rightful heir to—”

“Mizraim was always the rightful heir to the Angels,” Waller said. “We never needed proof before. Neither would you, if not for that thrice-damned empath you’re running around with. Angels above, what possessed command to make her a Sentinel is beyond me.”

“Rachel Jordan was given a commission by the Shekhinah itself!” David said. “Her appointment is beyond question.” Waller might doubt him, but no one, no Sentinel, could side against their supreme commander. The Shekhinah was their reason for being. It was the crux of their existence, and it made no mistakes.

“So you would have us fortify this system?” Captain Bloomer asked. David had heard of the Amphie captain, but never worked with the man. Bloomer had a reputation for running by the book, and tolerating no deviation from it. Which probably meant he didn’t think much of David, either.

“Aye, Captain. Secure the Conduit Gate and begin construction of a defense platform around it. Asherah will try to take Eden again for the same reason we need to hold it. Morale. Whoever has Eden serves as a beacon to the rest of humanity. Imagine the blow to the Sentinels under our own command if we heard the Asheran Confederacy held mankind’s homeworld.”

Waller slapped the table. “This world means nothing! It’s long dead. The Logos is going to Triangulum. To fight the real war. And every ship that remains here is a ship denied us on the front lines. While you play Angelologist, soldiers are dying. While you squabble over an uninhabited system, real planets are being won and lost. Time to look at the big picture, McGregor.”

“I’ve already been ordered to the front, by the Shekhinah,” David said. “We stopped over at Eden to secure it against the Asheran invasion. And some of these ships need to remain here to continue that mission.”

“And has the Shekhinah weighed in on the matter?” Hertz asked.

David nodded. “It said to use the minimum necessary resources to hold Eden against Asherah. We cannot allow them a hold so deep in Imperial space. Forget Eden for the moment—this is the Milky Way. If we allow even a single system in this galaxy to fall to the enemy, we lose face and they gain a staging ground for a great invasion.”

“Don’t count on the Logos to stay here and watch a dead system,” Waller said.

Bloomer sighed. “The Eternal Light will remain. We’ll begin construction on the defense platform, as you suggest, Captain.”

Good. It was a start. “It would be best if at least one battleship remained.”

Captain Yale, a Norm who had thus far said nothing, chuckled. “Which I guess means the Resplendent Glory, eh McGregor? If you’re taking the Wheel and Waller is taking the Logos, mine is the only other battleship here. And you’re asking me to stay behind. To let my brothers and sisters in arms go into danger without me.”

David had met Jasper Yale twice before. The man liked to drink, tell stories, and live it up. They’d toured the town on a world in the Pegasus Dwarf, before Yale was promoted. David had always meant to stay in touch, but reality had a way of interfering with most friendships.

Now he turned to him, hoping their past enough to go on. “I’m asking you to protect the research colony of Mizraim civilians, Jasper. I know you, and I know you want to be out there with the rest of us. But we need this system. We need this planet.”

Rachel was right. Eden wasn’t just another world. Mizraim had millions. This was Eden. This was home. It was a symbol of where they had all come from. And he would not leave it to Asherah.

Jasper drummed his fingers on the table before nodding. “All right, Mac. But you’re going to owe me a round next time we’re planetside.”

Which was Jasper’s way of saying he hoped David survived an assault on Asherah. From what he’d seen of the latest Leviathan upgrades, that was anything but certain.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIX

January 8th, 3097 EY

Still we have heard nothing of the Angels. I feared the deafening echo of their voices when they would at last speak again. Now I fear their silence even more. Is it possible I was too late, and the Conglomerate took the Ark before they woke?

Three weeks on the front line had taken its toll on Rachel. For certain she had learned the ship’s systems better. But she had to bear the weight of not only her own fatigue and doubt and fears, but those of the entire crew. And that weight threatened to strangle her.

She lay across David’s lap in his quarters as he gently stroked her temples. She longed to close her eyes and rest, but she couldn’t make herself let go of the image of his face, smiling down at her.

“Not a lot of empaths join the military, lass. I guess for this reason.”

“Mmm.” Telepaths had to concentrate to use their gifts, but empaths could almost never shut them off. One more way telepaths were luckier. She snorted. Such petty jealousy should be beneath her. Being a Psych at all gave her a huge advantage over most of humanity. It was a gift … a gift Angels had given her. Void, how could she be certain of anything anymore?

She had her powers because of what Angels had done to her ancestors. They had genetically engineered Psychs like all the other Races, but denied mankind the ability to enhance themselves. Maybe Caleb was right, and doing so had stifled human potential. Maybe the Asherans were in the right of it all … And she’d just spent the better part of a month killing them.

Five major engagements and as many minor skirmishes. She’d lost count of how many ships they’d destroyed, but there was a number she knew. Forty-seven. That’s how many crewmen they’d lost aboard the Wheel since coming here.

Considering the way her first engagement with the Asherans had gone, she supposed it was a blessing the number was so low. Still, a lot of people had lost friends, lovers, brothers or sisters. And here she was, sympathizing with the enemy. Thank God David wasn’t a telepath. If he knew what she was thinking right now … He’d never understand. His view of the holy universe was simpler, and sometimes she envied him that.

“I love you,” he said. “I mean really, you don’t have any idea.”

Rachel caught herself grinning at his sudden statement. “I’m an empath, Mac. I’ve got a pretty good idea. I mean, what with being able to actually feel your feelings.”

“Does it worry you? I mean, do you ever wonder if the feelings you have for someone are your own, or a reflection of the other person?”

All the time. It was the never-ending danger of being an empath. She had to question whether she lusted after a man because he lusted after her. Was it her nature to desire so fervently, or the desires of others saturating her? But David meant whether she loved him because he loved her.

“The problem with your question, with what you really want to ask me, is … Well, all people are like that—when someone loves you back, it deepens the feelings you have for them, too. It’s not a one-way reflection, it’s an infinite loop. And it’s not just for empaths, Mac. Don’t you love me more because you know how I feel about you?”

“Aye. Suppose I do.”

“Then you don’t need to be insecure, do you?”

“I know it’s been hard for you, serving on this ship.”

That was an understatement. She felt lost. Knight had found his mission in life, and Rachel had lost hers. She’d found the Ark and it had brought chaos. She’d found Eden, and now there was war. She’d convinced herself her crusade could save mankind, and now she didn’t even know what she was saving them from. There was no more clarity of which side was right and which was wrong. She didn’t even know if she still thought Asherans were the villains Mizraim had always cast them as.

Void, she didn’t know whether Caleb Gavet was a villain, either.

All she knew for sure was David was here, and she was going to stand by his side. She supposed it didn’t matter whether the Sentinels were right or not. They were the people she cared about, and so she had to help them, as best she could.

She sighed, and David stroked her face again.

“Lass?”

The Mazzaroth screen beeped, and a transmission from the bridge streamed out of the speakers. “Sir, there’s a report you need to see.”

David hopped up and switched on the Mazzaroth. It displayed a nearby system where a pair of Sentinel ships engaged an Asheran Leviathan. And beyond them, the Ark closed in.

“Angels above,” David swore. “Are they going to get involved?”

Rachel swallowed and rose to stand beside him. “It was only a matter of time.”

Plasma bursts erupted from the Ark in all directions, raining a hail of flame down on the Sentinels and Asherans alike.

“Bugger me …”

Rachel clutched his hand. They both knew it was too late to do anything.

All three ships exploded and began to fold back into their own singularities. They were so close together, the singularities fed on each other, forming a single black hole. She prayed it would burn itself out before growing large enough to swallow any of the planets in the system.

A quarter million Asheran civilians lived on three of the planets there. And if that black hole continued to feed on matter, it would grow and grow. If those people were smart, they would evacuate while they still could.

An Angel’s face appeared across the Mazzaroth. The screen was tight on him, and a hood overshadowed his face, but Rachel could see the shadow of his wings.

“This is the Angel Muriel. Mankind has broken the Covenant and will be punished. All prior factions of your tribes are hereby disbanded. All existing governments are dissolved by divine decree. You will submit yourself for judgment and Angel rule immediately. We have spoken.”

Rachel tightened her grip on David’s hand. A great hollow had opened inside her chest. What had she done? She had awakened the Angels in the hopes of stopping the Conglomerate from controlling the Ark. And it appeared they had. But now, her worst fears would come to pass. All her life she’d fought against Angel theocracy and now she alone had restored it. She had damned humanity in her quest to save it. They really intended to reinforce the Covenant.

The Days of Glory were once again upon them.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVEN

January 10th

At long last the Angels have returned, and my worst fears are realized. Now humanity will willingly return to servitude, and worse, be grateful for it.

“I was glad you called,” Leah said. She sat across a mess table from David, picking at the fish on her plate.

He’d spent almost all his meals with Rachel, until Knight of all people suggested his friends might miss him. Odd, to think the Gehennan should have any insight into such things. Sometimes the man seemed to understand nothing about human relationships. And yet, sometimes David felt jealous of Knight’s ability to read people.

“Aye,” he said. “It’s been a while since we had the chance to just talk.”

Leah snorted softly and stared at her fish. “So it has.”

“How are you adapting to the new ship? The new medical crew to work with?”

The Amphie shrugged, then took another bite. “Most of them are fine. Ensign Han shows real promise. She’s been studying divergent evolution in the Races following the Angel eugenics projects.” Leah leaned in closer, so close her cheek almost brushed his, and whispered in his ear. “Honestly I’d like her opinion on … the prisoner in the isolation wing.”

“No, lass,” he whispered back. “We can’t take the chance of anyone else finding out yet.” They couldn’t be certain how anyone would react.

The Angels were back. They demanded mankind submit to them once again. And despite all that had happened, David’s heart told him to comply. The Angels were divine, and they had taken it upon themselves to save humanity from the Adversary. For all Rachel’s preaching about the wrong they did in hiding Eden, now he knew the reason for that too. Which meant they likely had good reasons for everything they did. And Rachel was too caught up in her crusade to consider those reasons.

David never knew which side to follow anymore. Rachel was brilliant and brave and so convinced she was right. Except now, even she seemed as lost as the rest of them.

“Until Rachel figures out what to do with him—”

“Rachel is not the captain of this ship!” Leah jumped to her feet.

David glanced around, acutely aware of crewmen at other tables watching him. Watching the woman who had just chastised him in front of the crew. What the bloody void had gotten into her?

He grit his teeth and stood. “You are out of line, Lieutenant Commander.”

Her face went slack, and she jerked her hands behind her back. Her eyes darted around the room, and he could feel a hint of the embarrassment coming off her. But she had left him no choice. This was largely a new crew, and he needed to maintain their confidence in him. Their lives depended on his authority, and their trust of him. And Leah had jeopardized that.

“David, I’m sorry, I …”

“You’re dismissed.”

“David …” Leah’s jaw trembled for a second, then she saluted him and strode from the mess hall.

David kept his eyes on the door, trying not to look at any of the crewmen now staring at him. For the first time, he began to understand why his former captains took their meals in the officer’s mess. He couldn’t be a captain to these people and be one of them. Even a minor slip like this meant he was forced to choose between his duty and his friendship with Leah. She was his best friend, and the look she’d had on her face tore at his heart. Like he’d betrayed her.

He wasn’t the one who should feel guilty. She was the one who made a scene in the middle of the bloody mess hall. Except, she may have had a point. Was he failing in his duty as captain by allowing Rachel to decide the fate of their Angel prisoner? It had been her crusade all along. It had seemed like her place to make the hard choices. Except she was now just another officer under his command.

His comm flared. “Dana to McGregor.”

“What is it, Phoebe?”

“You’d better come up to the bridge, sir.”

David scratched his head. Maybe a distraction was just what he needed. He strode from the mess and toward the lift. Knight waited inside.

“She called you too?” he asked.

Knight nodded. After the lift closed and began to carry them up, Knight cleared his throat. “You shouldn’t go into battle with something else on your mind.”

What the void? The Gehennan could read him now? Was that Knight’s newfound psionic ability, or did he just see the tension in the set of David’s shoulders? David blew out a breath and slapped the button to stop the lift. “Your idea to spend time with my friends backfired.” The man would likely hear about it sooner or later, anyway. After that scene, the whole crew would. God—including Rachel. “Leah appears to have some kind of resentment toward Rachel for being in charge of Raziel.”

Knight grunted, then pointedly looked away. The man already knew about it, didn’t he? Why was David the last to learn these things?

David sighed and restarted the lift. A second later he stopped it again and spun on Knight. “You’re right. I shouldn’t face such a situation without a clear head. So bloody out with it, Knight!”

The Gehennan turned and met his gaze, then shrugged. “Fine. Unrequited feelings can strain a friendship, Mac.” Since when did Knight call him that? “And you might not be able to hold on to two women at the same time.”

Two women? Rachel and Leah? God, Knight thought he had romantic intentions toward Leah. They’d been friends a long time, but nothing had ever happened. Not like that. When they first became close he thought it might, but she always held herself so aloof. And then Rachel came back into his life and … And Knight had to be wrong. He didn’t think of Leah that way.

But then, that wasn’t what Knight was implying, was it? What if Leah had feelings he didn’t realize? Had she hidden her heart from him, of all people? He was supposed to be her best friend. If she had wanted … If she had only said …

Knight grabbed him by the shoulders and stared into his face. “We are needed on the bridge. You take it, and you lock it away until you have time for it. Lock it down, David.”

David nodded. Knight was right. He had a duty; he had a mission. He would deal with his emotions, with the two most important women in his life, when the time was right. He buzzed the lift.

“It is a comfort, though,” Knight said, staring straight ahead. “Knowing your life is as fucked up as the rest of ours.”

David snorted. The lift opened and he stepped out onto the bridge.

“Captain on the bridge,” an ensign shouted.

“Yup, yup,” Phoebe mumbled. “Captain’s out for a stroll. Checking in to make sure whether the war’s still on, sir?”

“I got held up. What is it?”

Phoebe pointed to the screen. “This is coming via a Mazzaroth Relay.” An Asheran fleet had surrounded the Ark and begun an assault. Thousands of missiles filled the screen, streaming at the Angel ship.

The Asheran Confederacy had given the Angels their answer. They had utterly refused the Angels’ demands and declared war on their former masters. And David could not blame them, really. Even if Rachel wasn’t right about the things she said of the Angels, the Asherans were cyborgs. The Angels would likely destroy them, destroy their entire way of life.

And so now the Asherans would destroy the Angels. Mankind’s former saviors, former masters, would be wiped from the universe. And the thought left a hollow in his chest.

The Ark flashed and a curtain of crisscrossed plasma toroids shot out from it like a bubble. An ever-expanding net that engulfed most of the missiles and stopped the Asheran assault dead.

“Holy shit,” Rachel said. “Wish I’d known how to do that.”

David jerked. He hadn’t even realized she was at her station.

He took the pilot’s chair. “How far are they?”

“Several systems away,” Phoebe said. “We could probably reach them in five or ten minutes. Depending on your performance. In the Conduit, I mean. Of course.”

Even five minutes would be too late to interfere in this battle. Not that David even knew which side he should be on.

Ion streams impacted the Ark, and its black flesh shuddered under the blows. The Ark retaliated with a continuous barrage of plasma launched against five Asheran ships at once. The ion streams cut off one by one, and the Asheran ships detonated. The Ark systematically moved through the Confederate fleet, igniting one Singularity Drive after another.

David’s throat was dry. He watched in helpless horror as the Angel vessel decimated an entire fleet. He found himself unable to speak, unable to move from the chair. The Asherans retreated toward the Gate, but the Angels just continued firing. It was like seeing a gardener clear away a patch of land. Cold and systematic.

By his count, the Ark had destroyed near forty ships, and it was still going.

“Captain?” Phoebe said. “What should we do, sir?”

He had no idea. No idea at all.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHT

January 11th

It feels like a lifetime ago I first set out for Gehenna. And yet, if I flip back the pages of this journal, it has been less than four months. It took me four months to damn to mankind to a hell worse than the one I tried to save us from.

Weeks in the Sentinel brig were pretty much as horrible as Caleb would have imagined. They gave him three meals a day and left him alone. All alone. With not a single thing to do. He couldn’t see his kids. He couldn’t kiss his wife in the morning. He couldn’t even have Rebekah during his lunch break—in fact, he hoped she’d escaped somehow. He’d asked a female Sentinel for a conjugal visit and she’d ignored him.

He was pretty sure there was a case to be made for boredom as a form of torture. Was it possible to die of boredom? Could sheer tedium so suffuse his soul that it would wither away and rot to nothing? Because he was pretty sure that was happening. He’d called the medical officer over to discuss it, but she’d been no more receptive.

“Total lack of activity could be detrimental to my health,” he’d told her.

The woman, Suzuki, shrugged. “So get some exercise. You’ve room to move around in there.”

“Indeed, yes. Exactly what I was thinking. If you’d come in here and remove your clothes, I could solve two problems at once. Sexual aerobics would alleviate both boredom and the need for exercise. Besides, if I don’t fuck someone soon I might actually go totally off rotation.”

Suzuki glared at him. “Fine. Then go fuck yourself.”

And she’d stormed off.

Pity.

And so, when Rachel Jordan finally came back to see him, he was doing pushups. Which meant he’d probably already slipped off rotation. He blamed the doctor.

He hopped up the moment Rachel came in. “Did Suzuki send you in here to help me with my problem?”

“What problem, Caleb?”

He sighed. “Guess not. What brings the illustrious and ever nebulous Rachel Jordan to my humble office?”

Rachel paced in front of his cell, as if unsure what to say.

So he let her walk. Caleb used his cybernetic eyes to peel away the layers of her clothing and examine the soft flesh beneath. Sadly, the scans didn’t have the detail of really looking at her naked, but it was enough to leave little to the imagination. Not that the formfitting Sentinel uniforms left that much to begin with. One good thing he had to hand them.

“What is it you want, Caleb?” she said at last.

Caleb couldn’t quite suppress a grin. If she only knew. And why not tell her? “At the moment, I want to bend you over the cot and have a wild romp with you. After that, I’d say a coffee, a massage, and then a hot shower. Plus I’d like to be the richest man in the universe.”

Rachel ran a hand through her hair, apparently neither amused nor perturbed by his innuendo. Which might be a good sign.

“I guess you don’t get the news in here, do you?”

No, much to his disdain. Caleb chewed his thumb. She’d obviously come to him for a reason, and sooner or later she’d spill it. Why not drag it on as long as possible? This was the best entertainment he’d had in days. He considered asking her to turn around so he could examine her backside in as much detail as the front.

“The Ark—the Angels—they destroyed an Asheran fleet. The Asherans tried to fight and it went very poorly for them. The Angels crushed them in mere minutes, Caleb.”

Huh. That was pretty much the worst possible outcome to this whole damn situation. First Apollo—who Caleb was pretty sure was an Asheran spy—led the Conglomerate into an alliance with Asherah, and now the Confederation was being massacred. Caleb hated being on the losing side.

“You must have some sympathies with the Asherans. The Conglomerate was working with them. Was that your doing, Caleb?”

He shrugged. Under duress, but she hardly needed to know Apollo had blackmailed him and cowed him into submission. Didn’t sound very manly. “Largely.”

“Because of your eyes?”

Ah. He should have figured that doctor would scan him for cybernetics sooner or later. That was the problem with being in Sentinel custody. It was a lot harder to disguise certain things.

“What’s the chip in your head do, anyway?”

Caleb chewed his thumb, buying more time. He pretty much hated other people knowing more than he did. And this woman always seemed to be fucking up his plans. His whole life, in fact.

“It’s some kind of telepathic amplifier, isn’t it? Are you in contact with the Asherans now?”

Telepathic amplifier? It was supposed to block telepaths from reading him, not allow them to do so across vast distances. Or that was what Apollo had said to him. Angels above, had the scientist lied to him? Son of a bitch might be reading his mind right now. Maybe not—maybe galaxies away was too far. Except … when he entered the Conduit? The Conduit carried psionic signals with no bearing on distance. So maybe he’d have to guard his thoughts from here on.

“Let me ask you a question, Rachel. Are you even on the right side? You say the Angels blew away an Asheran fleet? What else have they done? Tried to reinstitute the Days of Glory, I imagine.”

The look on her face, the pale, haunted expression, told him all he needed to know.

“So,” he said. “Now you fight against Asherah and the Conglomerate, the enemies of the Angels. The alien beings you so fervently opposed, preached against … The creatures whose legends you tried to debunk … Now you side with them. Oh, yes, my dear. Fighting against the enemies of the Angels is a lot like serving them, isn’t it? You side against humanity with our enemies.”

Rachel stepped back until she ran into the wall behind her, shaking her head. Oh, this was too easy. She’d had all the same thoughts herself. She knew her own hypocrisy already. A little prodding, and she was forced to face it. Caleb of all people knew how uncomfortable having a light shined on one’s little secrets could be.

“What are you going to do, Rachel? Side with them now? Submit and beg for forgiveness? Maybe they’d absolve your sins. Just wash them away.” Caleb tried not to grin at the way she cringed at that. Anyone who knew Jeremiah Jordan would. “Come on, girl. Are you ready to serve your Angelic masters at long last? All you have to do is help them destroy Asherah and the Conglomerate, and they’d probably welcome you back into the fold. Well, of course, you’d probably have to follow the Commandments. Pop out a few babies.”

“Shut up! Shut the void up, Gavet!”

He stalked over to the edge of the smart glass. “What’s the matter? Not the future you envisioned bringing when you began your self-righteous crusade on Gehenna? Is this not the inevitable result of your own actions? You wanted to change the universe, Ms. Jordan. Congratulations. You have. Reap the whirlwind, my girl.”

Rachel began to tremble, then hugged herself to still it. For a moment, she looked away. Then she hit the buzzer to open his cell. “I’ll get you a shuttle and help you out of here. Maybe there’s still time to stop them.”

Caleb had no idea if the Angels could be stopped now. But since they’d probably kill him either way, it was better to die trying.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED NINE

My actions may have brought us here, to the brink … And I have to do whatever is necessary to right those wrongs. Not everyone will agree with my decisions, but I must follow my conscience.

“What the bloody void were you thinking?” David said.

Rachel flinched at his tone. He’d called her into the war room. Of course he’d eventually seen what she’d done on the security feeds. Caleb Gavet was long gone, and the Wheel of Law couldn’t afford to hunt him down. They were already underway back to Sentinel space to make repairs.

“Mac, listen …”

“Aye, tell me why you let a criminal, an enemy of the state, go free on my ship. Tell me why you took it upon yourself to decide he deserved a pardon instead of a trial.”

Hot, stifling rage wafted off him like toxic gas, almost choking her. She backed away a step. She needed to get a grip. She just had to make him understand that, with the Angels free, they needed Asherah.

“Mac, Caleb is a liaison to the Confederacy. Humanity will need to stand together against this new threat. The Angels have declared war on life as we know it. If we don’t bury hostilities with Asherah and the Conglomerate—”

David stalked closer, so close she could feel his breath on her face. “Bury hostilities? Have you gone completely off rotation? The Angels haven’t declared war on us—Asherah has! They invaded our space. We released the Angels just to keep the Conglomerate from getting hold of the Ark. Well, now the Angels are here to do just that.”

Yes. She had listened to him and unfrozen the Angels. At the time, anything seemed better than letting the Conglomerate become despotic rulers of humanity. But she should have known she’d be trading one evil for another.

“What if we were wrong, though?” she asked. “What if they would have been better than the Angels? Or more to the point, maybe releasing them was the right decision. I don’t know. It gives us a chance, a reason to make that stand together with the rest of humanity. A chance to be reunited.”

“These are the people who murdered my mum! Asherans have cast aside the Covenant and made monsters of themselves. They are fiends in human skin, trying to destroy everything we stand for.” He jabbed her in the shoulder. “Everything that uniform stands for! And you betrayed it!”

“Like you’ve never done that.”

David recoiled, and she regretted the words the instant they left her mouth. She was letting his anger poison her. She had to stay calm.

“I did that to save you, lass. And now you’ve betrayed me. Whatever your personal convictions, you took an oath as an officer under my command. It was not your decision to make! By all rights I should have you thrown in the brig, Rachel.”

She glared at him. Who the void did he think he was, threatening her? “Then do it!”

“Don’t bloody tempt me.”

“You’re right.” She ran a finger down the center of her uniform jacket to unzip it. “I never should have put this damn thing on.” She flung the coat at his feet. “Jail me or let me off on the next station, Mac. Do whatever you feel is right. So will I. But consider one thing—you believe the Asherans are evil because they’re cyborgs. But you only believe cyborgs are evil because the Angels said so. But the Angels are cyborgs, too. And trust me, they are just as much your enemy.”

David bent down to grab the jacket, but didn’t rise. Instead he looked up at her and spoke softly. “You are so convinced you’re right you don’t even hear yourself, Rach. We know … we know why the Angels hid Eden, and it was for our protection. And still you can’t imagine the Commandments existed for a reason.”

Rachel chuckled, though she felt no humor. “Oh, there was a reason. They wanted to control us. They wanted to stifle our potential to ensure their own rule would fester on for all eternity.”

David sighed and stood at last, shaking his head. “You’re not leaving me much choice, are you, lass? So be it. I accept your resignation. Consider yourself lucky that’s your only punishment.”

Oh, she was damn lucky. She was lucky she was getting off this ship and out of this mess. She was lucky to be free of the Sentinels and the Angels.

She stormed out of the war room and found Knight waiting for her in the hall.

“We’re leaving,” she said. “We were wrong to ever come here.” She breezed past him, down the hall.

“I’m not leaving, Rachel.”

She almost stumbled over her own steps, then turned to look back at him. Knight had been by her side every minute since she came to Gehenna. He was the one person she knew she could count on. How could he stay here?

“Knight, I’m done with the Sentinels. Mac all but called me a criminal. They’re going to side with the damned Angels.”

Knight slowly shook his head. “You shouldn’t have released Gavet, Rachel. It wasn’t your call.”

Rachel stood there, her mouth half open. Since when did he care about this duty shit, anyway?

“People died capturing him,” Knight said. “And a lot more people died fighting his Asheran allies. Our brothers and sisters in arms gave up their lives to hold the line against the enemy, and you just let him go. Because he convinced you his side had a point? Don’t you think every side is always going to have a point? The only people who act without reason are psychotics, Rachel.”

“God, this isn’t about brothers-in-arms … This is about Phoebe. You’ve fallen for her and you don’t want to leave her!”

Knight shrugged. “I’ve known a lot of women. I’ve only loved a few.”

“You … You’re in love with her?” Void, she should be happy for him. It was petty to be jealous. She had David … or she’d had him, until she’d let Caleb sway her.

Knight looked away and sighed. “I don’t know. But I plan to find out. And you’re wrong. It’s about more than one person. That’s where you’ve gone off rotation, Rachel. You’re so blinded by your convictions you think you alone are fit to decide the fate of humanity—and on the small scale, your arrogance allows you to think yourself suited to decide the course for the people on this ship. But the ship has a captain, appointed by the government.”

“You’ve changed, Knight.”

“Yeah.”

Warmth for her still drifted off him, but it was suffused with disappointment. He, the Gibborim assassin, was disappointed in her. And somehow that was almost as crushing as losing David. Like the weight of a neutron star pressed on her chest and she couldn’t quite suck a breath down. She wanted to tell him she hoped she’d see him again. She wanted to thank him for all he’d done for her. She wanted to wish him well.

But no words would come.

Instead, she stalked off alone down the corridor.

They would reach a station soon, and she would leave Knight behind. She would leave David behind. The two men she cared most for had turned their backs on her. And though it tore her heart to pieces, she had to do what was right for all mankind. She had to … Her chest heaved and she fought back tears in her eyes.

No way. She was never going to let these people see her cry.

If she had to face the universe alone, she would. She would!

Release me … Raziel’s voice tugged at her mind.

Go to hell, she thought back at him.

You do not understand hell, Ms. Jordan. Release me …

Soon, she would be free of the Angel’s constant prodding at her mind. The never-ending stream of psionic assault against her consciousness had let her sleep so little in the last weeks.

Finally, she would be free of it all.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TEN

January 12th

I have taken leave of the Wheel and of David and … of everything. I departed on Gihon station. Of all the people in the universe, I had hoped he would understand me. But he is as blind as ever, and I may never see him again because of it. And the awful truth was, for just one moment, I considered jumping from one of the docking bridges on this station. Taking the coward’s way out of my mess. But I am stronger than that. If I cannot count on David or even Knight, I will fix this the same way I began it—alone.

The Flame of Heaven picked Caleb up at a way station on the outskirts of the Triangulum galaxy. The ship, a Jericho Cruiser, had escaped the Sentinel assault weeks back. Apparently, the Conglomerate had hesitated to take any further action, especially since the Angel attack on Asherah.

The thought that they waited on him might have been a comfort—if it didn’t mean he would be responsible for the fate of five different megacorps. Funny how much less appealing that sounded in the midst of an intergalactic war. His every decision would lead to the loss of thousands of lives. Maybe millions.

Caleb sighed. The moment his shuttle hatch opened, Rebekah rushed to his side.

“Thank God you’re alive!” She threw her arms around his neck and held him.

He patted the girl on the back. “I’m glad you made it off the Throne. How’d you manage that?”

“Well, you know me. I’m a slippery … agile little thing.”

No kidding. And she was trying to entice him. Which was working, of course. Void, it had been weeks since he’d had a woman. He was half tempted to pull her back into the shuttle for a quickie right now.

Except, he hadn’t spoken to his family in weeks, either. “I need quarters.”

“I was just thinking the same thing,” she said. “And I’ve arranged the finest this ship has.”

Which probably meant she’d displaced some mid-level executive, already miserable for having to be out here in a war zone. Poor bastard. But not really Caleb’s problem.

Rebekah showed him to the room—a small chamber, by his standards, but one decorated with curtains and a downy sofa that looked damn comfortable. He kicked off his shoes, plopped down on the couch, and stretched.

His assistant sauntered toward him, but he held up a hand.

“Sorry, I need a few minutes, Rebekah. Would you excuse me?”

She jerked to a stop and gnawed on her lip, then stared at him a minute. Her pupils dilated and he felt his own pulse quicken.

Ayelet. Ayelet. Aye …

“Just … five minutes …”

Rebekah brushed her fiery hair from her face and spun on her heel, swinging her ass as she walked. Caleb watched closely. He blew out a long breath when the door closed.

Holy shit. He’d opened up a micro nova with that one.

“Mazzaroth personal access, Caleb Gavet, code Nebula 8000.” The screen flickered on. “Contact Ayelet Gavet.”

A moment later his wife’s face filled the screen. “Oh my God, Caleb! Where have you been? I haven’t heard from you in weeks!”

Before he could even get a word out, Miriam jumped into view. “Daddy!”

“Hi pumpkin. I missed you both. I was being held prisoner—”

“Angels above,” Ayelet said. “We heard about the war. What the void were you thinking, Caleb? You don’t belong out there. You need to come home this instant.”

He couldn’t agree more. He didn’t belong out here. In fact, he wasn’t sure he even still wanted to be a part of Jericho. The price just kept growing higher and higher. “Unfortunately, that’s not an option right now, baby. It’s out of my hands.”

“You’re the damned Chairman, Caleb. You expect me to believe you can’t make decisions?”

“Well, I … I have responsibilities, baby.”

Ayelet frowned, and Miriam pouted. “Daddy, you should just quit if you’re unhappy.”

He chuckled. Maybe he should. Except, Ayelet and the kids might find life a little less pleasant if he did. Every few years their style of life had been upgraded. He seriously doubted they would like a downgrade. But there was no benefit to antagonizing them with that truth. They wouldn’t understand until they faced the situation, and then it would be too late.

He sighed and opened his mouth. Then the door to his room buzzed open.

Caleb spun. Damn Rebekah. He’d told her to give him …

Apollo stepped forward, just out of view of the Mazzaroth screen. “We have business to discuss, Mr. Gavet.”

Caleb stared at the man who had helped him build his own nightmare. “Ayelet,” he said, without looking at the screen, “I’m going to have to call you back. Mazzaroth off.”

How the void had Apollo even gotten here? The thought of sharing a ship with the man made his stomach roil. His mouth tasted like stale bread, and a cold sweat formed on his back. “What do you want?”

“We have experienced a setback. Now we must redouble our connections with Asherah if we are to survive.”

“You’re one of them, aren’t you? An Asheran. That’s why you know so much about cybernetics.”

Apollo’s face revealed not a hint of emotion. “Contact the Aluf and transmit all data from the Gibborim experiments. They should be able to use your findings to help them in creating a super soldier project.”

Void. He supposed that answered that. Apollo wanted him to hand the Asherans the key to overcoming Sentinels in personal combat. Caleb didn’t truly object to that—he wouldn’t mind seeing the self-righteous, self-appointed intergalactic police put in their place. But he wasn’t sure he liked the implications. It would leave Asherah in a position to rule the universe. Asherah, not the Conglomerate.

“What about our interests?” he asked.

“They are aligned.”

Caleb seriously doubted his interests were aligned with Apollo’s.

The man glared at him, as though he’d heard the thought. Shit, he probably did. Psionic amplifier—the chip in Caleb’s brain. And with the scientist on the ship with him … Okay. Clear his mind. Focus. The best way to protect his family from here on was to just cooperate. Jericho didn’t matter compared to them.

“Fine. I’ll do it.”

“I know.” Apollo strode out of the room.

Caleb clutched his chest and shuddered.

A few seconds later, Rebekah slipped back in. He was going to have to start locking the damn door.

The girl stared at him. Waiting on his pleasure?

“I need you to pull up and compile all the records from the Gibborim project. I want them sent to Aluf Lamport immediately. And covertly.”

Rebekah nodded, almost smiled. Which was odd. He could have sworn she’d come in here to seduce him. And sadly, long as it had been, he had no mood left for it. Apollo had managed to scare the lust right out of him. Bastard.

His assistant left, and he turned the Mazzaroth back on. “Contact Rachel Jordan.”

It took several minutes for her to answer. When she did, she stared at him without speaking. By the look of the room, she was no longer on a Sentinel ship. It lacked that oppressive blackness and poor lighting.

“Hello, Rachel.”

“What do you want, Caleb?”

“You’re always trying to save the universe. Why don’t we work together and see what we can accomplish?”

Rachel laughed. Rather longer than he thought necessary. Just when she seemed done, she wiped her eyes and chuckled a moment more. “Thanks. I needed that.”

“I always aim to please a woman. In any way she needs. I am quite adept at it, in fact. You should really consider my offer. I’d take good care of you.”

She shrugged. “Sexual innuendo’s not exactly the best thing to win me over, Caleb. Besides, I have another goal in mind. And even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t work with you. You know, because you’re an ass and I don’t like you.”

Ugh. Well, that was direct. It was worth a try, anyway. If he could convince her to his side, maybe they could actually stand up to the Angels. And Apollo. And Asherah. God, he wasn’t even sure who his enemies were. But one thing he’d learned, Rachel Jordan was too much trouble to allow her to be one of them.

“You don’t want to see the Angels reignite the Days of Glory any more than I do, Rachel. When you’re ready to work together to stop that, give me a call.”

She gave him the finger and cut the line.

Caleb drummed his fingers on his knee. He was going to need to find an ally. And fast.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED ELEVEN

January 14th

I sit, sometimes for hours, on the edge of the docking bridges. Manna Products owns this station, but they allow anyone to use it—for a charge, of course. Even Asherans have come here, fleeing the terror now haunting them. They keep to themselves, hiding their faces and bodies beneath suits. Fear follows them, as Mizraim citizens stare, wondering what cybernetic horrors lurk just out of sight. If only these people knew the real monsters were those with wings.

David stood at attention, eyes fixed on Imperator Akram Scott through the Mazzaroth. Several other members of the Sanhedrin shifted about behind the Imperator.

“We’ve come to this decision regretfully, Captain,” Scott said. “But we have come too far in the last six hundred years to simply surrender all we’ve built out of Mizraim. To submit wholly to Angel authority, to give up all we’ve done in their name, dishonors the efforts of our ancestors.”

“Aye, sir.” David tried to keep his expression blank. The truth was, he didn’t know how to feel about it. For certain, he didn’t truly want to be beholden to the Angels. Not now—not after having met Raziel. What would the Angel’s brethren think if they knew David held one of their own prisoner? And yet, his whole life he’d believed them divine. He’d thought they would have all the answers.

“You have had extensive experience on the Angel’s Ark,” Scott said. “It’s why we want you to deliver the message. Invite them to a peace summit here on New Rome. We are certain a compromise can be made. After all, Mizraim is the legitimate successor, and we have held true to the Covenant.”

David swallowed, then saluted. They wanted him to find the Ark and invite the Angels home for dinner? He wasn’t sure he shared Scott’s optimism that they would come. Even if they did, David doubted they would agree to compromise. It didn’t seem to be in their nature. The Angel he’d met was the all-or-nothing type.

And maybe Rachel was right about the Angels all along. Maybe they had served their purpose, had guided mankind all they could. For them to return now … He doubted the Days of Glory would be all they had once been. For six hundred years mankind had been free. It would not be so easy to return to servitude. Before, they had submitted to Angels as saviors. Before, humanity had been all but wiped out by the Adversary. Things were different now. There was no terrible threat looming over them, no Adversary to unite mankind under Angel rule.

“Sir,” he said. “I can find the Ark. They haven’t been hiding, exactly.” Considering they continued destroying the Asheran fleet one system at a time. “It shouldn’t take more than a day or two.”

“Good.” Scott leaned forward, eyes locked on David. “Here’s your opportunity to redeem yourself, McGregor. Don’t make us regret giving you the second chance.”

David saluted again, and the Mazzaroth flickered off. As far as he knew, the Shekhinah had been the one to give him a second chance. Last time he’d seen Imperator Scott, the man had sentenced him to the penal colony of Horesh for refusing to betray Rachel. And now he’d driven her away.

Except … For God’s sake, what had she been thinking letting Gavet go? The man was in bed with Asherah. He was the Chairman of Jericho Corp, a company all but at war with Mizraim at this point. And Rachel was sympathizing with the enemy. How could he not castigate her for that?

He tapped his comm. “Lieutenant Dana to the war room.”

A few minutes later, Phoebe swaggered in, saluted, then plopped down at the table without waiting for permission.

“Miss me, boss?”

“We have a mission, Phoebe.”

“Yup, yup. Save the universe. Kind of a fulltime, gig, too. I mean, I took a day off, once. I hear a galaxy imploded.”

David sighed and sat down across from her. “I need you to be serious, lass. I’ve come to depend on you a lot in the last months.”

Phoebe sat up straighter and brushed that ridiculous pink hair out of her face. “Sir. I know, and thank you. You can. Count on me, I mean.”

David blew out a long breath. Bugger, the question he had to ask was about the most awkward he could imagine. “You and Knight are getting on well, these days.”

“We fight, we fuck, we spar. Sometimes all at once.”

David winced. “I’m not asking for details, lass.” Best be out with it. “Do you … plan on requesting pregnancy leave … any time soon?”

Phoebe quirked an eyebrow. Then she snickered, snorted, and covered her mouth with her hand. Silent peals of laughter shook her shoulders.

Bloody void, what a question to have to ask. Her of all people. At least she seemed to be taking it well.

“Worried …” She snickered again. “Worried about the Shekhinah’s orders to Knight?”

Aye. The computer had told him to reproduce as often as possible. Void, it had ordered David to facilitate that, which was not happening.

“Phoebe …”

She shook her head. “Yeah, maybe when the war is over. Or it dies down a bit or something. Not now, not like this. I am a Sentinel, sir. I’m needed out here.”

“Aye. You’ve no idea how much … Commander Firoz was killed in our last engagement.”

“Yeah.”

Of course she knew that. David shook his head. “I’m going to need a new first officer, Phoebe.”

“Yup, yup. You want me to go over personnel files or something?”

“No, lass. I want you to do the job.” He’d known her a while, and he knew he could trust her. Besides, she was one of the only people on this ship who knew the truth about what happened on the Ark. And despite her never-ending snark, she was a fine officer. If she could learn to keep her mouth in check, she could go far.

Phoebe clucked her tongue. “Uh, sir … You’ve got several officers in line before me. Shit, Leah is ahead …”

David shook his head. “Leah is a medical officer.” He’d considered her, anyway. They’d been friends a long time, and there was no one he trusted more. But it would compromise her duties as the chief medical officer to have to be on the bridge all the time. Besides, with what he’d learned from Knight about her true feelings for him … “She’s simply not ideal, and, under the circumstances, I don’t have time to get to know any of the others.”

Nor could he risk bringing them into the loop. Not yet.

“So … I’d be getting two promotions, huh?”

“Just the one, lass. Captain’s discretion to assign a Lieutenant Commander as XO during times of war.”

“Hmm. Well, even one would put me ahead of Knight. Where I belong. I mean, obviously.”

David scratched his head. He hoped he wasn’t going to regret trusting her with this much responsibility. The truth was, he didn’t see any other choice.

“Computer,” he said, “I hereby offer a field promotion to Phoebe Dana to the position of Lieutenant Commander.”

“Acknowledged.”

The computer sent out a signal to the nanobots in her suit. David couldn’t see or hear the signal, but her insignia changed, displaying her new rank almost immediately.

Phoebe glanced down at it. “Yup, yup. I’m the best. Er, after the Captain, I mean. Obviously, the Captain is the best. First class, sir. In fact, I could probably hug you.”

“Don’t.” Knight would probably have a fit over it. “I have a better mission for you. Track down the Ark. We’ve got a message for them.”

Phoebe stood and saluted. She turned to go, then glanced back at him. “Sir. Is ‘message’ a euphemism for us planning to start some shit?”

“What? No, lass. We literally have a bloody message. Get to your station.”

She left, and David followed her out. That sorted one of the women in his life. Still, he had two others to worry about, and he cared about both a great deal. He prowled through the ship until he reached the med bay.

“The rest of you are dismissed,” he told her staff.

They saluted, then filed out.

Leah turned to face him, standing with her hands behind her back. “David?”

He licked his lips. He’d been going over this conversation in his mind from the moment Knight had told him how she really felt. Or not told him, but told him enough. And the truth was, there was nothing he could say to her on the subject that would salve the pain. But maybe that wasn’t what he needed to say.

“I’m sorry about the other day, lass.”

Leah shook her head. “No. I was out of line. You have to maintain your authority in front of the crew.”

“Aye. But I need my friend, too. I miss her.”

Leah smiled a little, then turned away, but he thought he’d seen a hint of water at the corners of her eyes. “You never lost her, David.”

“Is it … too hard for you if I talk about Rachel?”

She shook her head without looking at him. She’d placed her palms on the desk in front of her, apparently no longer caring it spread the webs between her fingers in plain sight. Nor should she. “You can tell me anything, David. You’re my best friend.”

He put a hand on her shoulder. “And you’re mine, lass. That’s never going to change.” And she had to know that meant she’d never be more, either.

From the way she bobbed her head, slow and sure, she knew. “You’re scared for her?”

“Aye. I don’t know where she is, or if she’s safe. I want to call her, but I …”

“But what?” Leah rubbed her face, then turned to look at him. “You’re afraid she won’t answer? Or you’re afraid she will and you’ll have to argue again? Either way, David, if you want to be with her, you have to call.”

“She was the one who was wrong. She could call me.”

Leah looked at him like he was a fool lad. Aye, so that wasn’t going to happen. Rachel wasn’t going to be the one to call. Or admit she was wrong.

Leah embraced him then. “Are you sure she’s what you want, David?”

“Aye.” He couldn’t afford to leave any false hope to Leah. She meant too much to him to let her suffer like that.

“Then you know what you have to do.”

“Aye."

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWELVE

January 17th

I do not regret putting Gihon behind me. I have made many enemies in my quest, but I’ve made friends, as well. It is past time I called on them to do what I can fix the universe, little as it may be.

Knight sat in the pilot seat when David entered the bridge, looking relieved they had just jumped out of the Conduit.

“How go the flying lessons?” David asked.

Knight grunted.

“He’s doing fine,” Lieutenant Commander Kennison said. David had assigned the Psych to teach Knight the ways of the Conduit. Now that the Gehennan was one himself, he needed to know. Sadly, Aarah Kennison had about as much sense of humor as a Calnehnian boar caught in a thunderstorm. Which meant she, like a number of other officers, didn’t seem overly pleased David had placed Phoebe as the XO.

“We’re approaching New Rome, now,” Phoebe said. “So … you really think they’ll come?”

David took position beside Knight. “Guide us to the planet, slow and steady, then set a geosynchronous orbit.” He glanced at Phoebe. “I don’t know, lass.”

The truth was, he doubted the Angels would show. They didn’t seem interested in negotiating. They wanted to rule. They thought it was their right, and he couldn’t really blame them. They had been in cryo sleep for the last six hundred years, so they had no way of knowing how much mankind had changed.

The Tabernacle had moved off orbit and stood ready to greet the Ark, should it actually appear. Meanwhile, the Sanhedrin had secured the Pinnacle on the planet below for the negotiations. The tower offered the finest view of the most beautiful planet in the universe. Maybe Imperator Scott hoped to impress the Angels with all Mizraim had built in their absence. If so, David could think of no better way to do so. And if the Sanhedrin succeeded, if the Angels really joined Mizraim against Asherah, maybe this war could be finished quickly and with minimal loss of life.

Or maybe Asherah would fight to the last man, unwilling to surrender their way of life. They had cast aside the Covenant like naughty children, thinking themselves free to play while their elders were out. But the Angels would not slap them on the wrist and set them for penance. They would likely kill the Asherans for the cybernetics polluting their bodies. And how far did that pollution run? The Sentinels had never had exact figures on just how much of Asherah used cybernetics. It could be mostly the military, or it could be damn near every man, woman, and child in the whole Confederacy.

And if so, would that mean total genocide? The Asherans had given David more reason to hate them than most. The Balthazar Incident had claimed his mum, and he could never forgive them for that. But it didn’t mean he’d willingly march alongside the Angels in the extermination of God-alone-knew how many lives. Maybe as many as a trillion people lived in the Confederacy.

Knight maneuvered the ship with a nervousness David had never seen in the Gehennan. His movements were jerky, as if he expected a ship the size of the Wheel of Law to react like a hoverbike, and constantly overcorrected when it didn’t. The ride through the Conduit was bumpy, but then, it always was for a novice pilot. And Knight had managed to get them here relatively quickly—which was the point of the exercise. To test his intuitive sense. Soon, David would need Leah to run a full Psych workup on Knight. He’d need a proper Psych rank. A hard thing to judge, considering his only significant talent seemed to be telekinesis—the rarest of all gifts. And his was shockingly powerful. Knight had ripped a hole right through the floor of the Ark in his fight with Raziel.

“You’re doing fine, lad.”

“I know that.”

“We’re probably going to have to work on the concept of the chain of command at some point, though.”

“The only chain I’m interested in is a kyoketsu.”

David shook his head.

“Captain,” Kennison said. “The Ark just jumped out of the Gate. The Tabernacle reports they are not responding to hails.”

“Up, lad.”

Knight jumped out of the chair, and David sat down. He waved the display onto the holo screen. It showed the Ark converging toward New Rome. Bugger. David scratched his head. They did come. But why would they ignore the hails of the Tabernacle? Did they consider the officers onboard beneath their notice? Did they come directly to see the Sanhedrin?

Something tingled at the edge of his mind. He had no time for psionic input right now. He tried to shut out the sensation, but it prodded at him.

“Phoebe … Send our regards. Inform the Ark the Sanhedrin eagerly await them on the planet.”

“Yup, yup. I’ll just call up the Angels on the Mazzaroth. ‘Cause we’re buds. Maybe I should invite them for brunch, later?”

David rubbed his temples, allowing himself the barest glimpse of the vision tugging at his mind. Fire. There was a terrible fire and … He shook his head, trying to clear the vision. That had been New Rome. Burning.

“Phoebe … How many Sentinel ships are in the system?”

“Five, counting us. Which, I always do.”

“Open a channel to them. Tell them—”

“Sir,” Kennison said, “The Ark is powering some kind of weapon.”

God help them. He was right. The Angels didn’t come to negotiate. They came to subdue. They came to prove there was no order except their order.

“Fire on the Ark!” David jerked the Wheel around, trying to get between the Angels and the planet. “Fire everything! All missiles, all MAGs, pulse cannons!”

An iridescent beam shot from the Ark. It impacted the Pinnacle and the tower exploded in an outward wave. The beam continued, boring into the planet. The atmosphere caught fire. In a matter of seconds New Rome went from a blue-green ball on his screen to a miniature sun, engulfed in flame. Glowing red.

“No!”

Behind him, he heard crewmen fall to their knees. Others continued firing on the Ark, having little effect.

The planet’s crust grew molten. And a heartbeat later, the entire world detonated. Molten shards of asteroids—pieces of his home—impacted the Wheel and ravaged the kinetic shields.

“Kill them!” David shouted. “Take that thing out!” He sent swarms of drones at the Ark, but they vanished from his displays faster than he could direct them.

A Sentinel cruiser detonated, and immediately imploded. The Singularity Drive began to suck in a nearby destroyer.

“Sir,” Phoebe said, “the Tabernacle has retreated into the Conduit. They’ve signaled full withdrawal.”

“Fire both ion cannons at the Ark!”

They had destroyed his world. He might have been born on Calneh, but New Rome was home. His father … His father and sister were down there. The whole damn Sanhedrin. The leaders of twenty-three galaxies … He couldn’t imagine even one would miss the chance to meet the Angels. And they …

Ion streams impacted the Ark, but minimal damage registered.

“The Tabernacle is right,” Knight said. “Get us out of here.”

“We’re staying! Continuous fire!” He should have listened to Rachel. He should have trusted her. She was right about the Angels. They weren’t saviors. They were monsters. They had eradicated a planet—almost a billion people, in an instant. No remorse.

“The Wall Against Night is lost,” Phoebe reported. “I hate to agree with ninja boy … but …”

“You want to run?” David shouted at her. “Let them get away with this?”

“Yup. We’re losing power because of the ion cannons and—”

Plasma bolts impacted them. A hull breach exploded on a lower deck, registering on his display.

“We’ve lost enough people today, Captain,” she said.

For an agonizing heartbeat he stared at the Ark with utter hatred. They should never have uncovered the monstrosity. He jerked the joystick, darting them around the Ark. The remaining Sentinel ships followed, and the Ark let them go.

They had made their point.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTEEN

January 19th

Even out on the fringes, I heard the news. New Rome gone. My home vanished in a ball of molten rock. My father lost, and I would never have the chance to reach him. Never have the chance to repair the rift between us. I had always thought one day I could home and show him I was right and he was wrong. And now he’s found that lesson far too late.

Three times David tried to call Rachel. She did not answer. He prayed it was only anger that silenced her. He prayed the Angels were not looking for her as well. They would know she had been the captain of the Ark. Maybe they knew everything. And he had been blinded. Blinded by loyalty and tradition and the very indoctrination Rachel had accused him of.

She was the most arrogant, self-righteous lass he’d ever met. And she’d been right. Did that justify her arrogance? Did that make it something else entirely?

“Dana to McGregor. Sir, we’ve arrived at Gihon station.”

David had dropped Rachel at Gihon. It was the last place he knew to look for her. The Sanhedrin were dead. Sentinel command was gone. No one had heard from the Tabernacle. Maybe the Ark had hunted it down and destroyed it as well. Maybe the Shekhinah was in hiding, deciding what to do about its former masters. Perhaps six hundred years of autonomy had made even the sentient computer leery of submission.

He was on his own, and all he could think of was Rachel. He had let her leave, left her alone in this … chaos.

He had no idea what to do anymore. He had no orders, and everyone was looking to him. Just as the people looked to the Sentinels to see them through the inferno threatening to engulf the entire universe. And he just didn’t know what to say to them.

He tapped his comm. “You have command, Phoebe. I’m going aboard the station.”

He almost ran down to the airlock. It buzzed, and opened onto a landing dock. The port was awash in civilian and military personnel, most seeming to be boarding outgoing transports with as much haste as possible. People dashed across the bridges, spilling goods and knocking each other over.

One woman almost slipped over the rail. David grabbed her arm, saving her from a fall of twenty meters to the lower level.

“Th-thank you,” she said.

A siren sounded in the distance, announcing another departing ship. People were fleeing from everywhere, to everywhere. Because no one knew where safe was anymore.

“Get to your ship,” he said. “Tell them to head for the outer galaxies. The Antila Dwarf, maybe.” That should put them well away from Asherah or Angels, for the moment.

She nodded, and rushed off.

There was a passage in the Codex, toward the end. Tremble in the wake of chaos, lest Hell should be unleashed. David had never dwelled on the passage, had never really understood it. Was this what they meant? That in failing to submit to their order, in embracing chaos, they would create a living hell?

He pushed his way against the charging crowd, back toward the heart of the station. Gihon was a civilian transport station run by Manna Products. Fortunately, the corp hadn’t closed access to Mizraim citizens after the Conglomerate allied with Asherah. Maybe Manna wanted to play both sides. Or maybe it saw the reality—that a station near the Asheran border, but within Mizraim space, would lose all business if they stopped refitting Sentinel ships and allowing citizen transport here.

He slapped the buzzer to the head office.

A moment later, a security guard opened the door. The man was an Emite—big, strong, and a bit too submissive for this kind of work. Still, if someone ordered him to, he could cause serious harm.

“Can I help you, officer …?”

“Captain. David McGregor. I need to see whoever is in charge.”

“That would be me,” a man said from behind the Emite. “Let the captain through.”

The Emite stepped aside, revealing the speaker—an Amphie who had to be well past a hundred. David might have placed him approaching twice that, but he suspected part of it was just fatigue lines on the face of an overworked old man. A man who should have been home, bouncing great-grandchildren on his knee.

“What can I do for you, Captain?”

“I need to find someone. She passed through this station a while back.”

The old Amphie shrugged. “Lots of people do. But if you want a manifest, you need a warrant. You know that.”

A warrant? Most places didn’t even bother asking Sentinels for warrants. It only served to irritate the officers, and everyone knew a Sentinel could easily obtain one. Except for right now. Maybe that was what the Amphie was thinking. Or maybe he was just trying to hold on to fragile regulations in an off rotation time.

David scratched his head, then pointed out the door behind him. “Do you see what’s going on out there? You think this is the time to worry about station regulations or any of that shite?”

“This station is owned by Manna Products, Captain. We are under their sovereignty.”

So that was it. The Conglomerate must have told its people to cease cooperation with Sentinels.

Well, there were two ways he could handle this. He’d start with the way that didn’t involve leaving the poor Emite unconscious on the floor.

“All right, man, listen to this. A person I care a lot about is missing, right? You probably have people in the same situation. Now, I need to find her, and I need to do it right now.”

The Amphie gnawed on his lower lip a moment, then made a sucking sound. “It’s off the record then?”

“Aye.”

At last the old man nodded, typed something on the console, and handed him a data chip. “Off with you, then.”

David nodded at the man, then rushed back to the Wheel. He plugged the data chip into his personal console. It contained a manifest of everyone who had passed through the station in the last three months. Manna kept excellent records, he had to give them that. Trust a corp to always manage the bookkeeping. Never let a single credit slip away.

“Scan all records for Rachel Jordan.”

A second later she was displayed. Arrived on the Wheel of Law, and departed some days later, on the Anthem.

“Query Sentinel database for all records on the Anthem.” A readout popped up on his display. “Summarize.”

“The Anthem is a Unicorn-class transport ship commissioned by Quasar Industries in 3034 EY. It passed through a series of private owners, and is now registered to Captain Degana O’Malley.”

“Pause.” O’Malley? “Any relation to Thomas O’Malley?”

“Degana O’Malley is Thomas O’Malley’s younger sister.”

David slapped his desk. That was it. Rachel was still working with the damn Seekers, wasn’t she? Which meant she had probably gone back to Eden.

And that’s where he was going, too.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FOURTEEN

Despite myself, I actually called Machaerus, the fortress station of the Redeemers. I called, hoping, whispering a silent prayer my father had been there. My prayers went unanswered. He is gone, and an entire world with him.

Sometimes Knight actually missed living on the Ark. It had been so quiet. The massive Angel ship had housed a crew of only a few people, which meant he could walk for hours without seeing another person. There was a kind of peacefulness in that.

Here, on board the Wheel of Law, everywhere he went there were Sentinels. And despite himself, he now respected them. But he missed his private dojo and his long walks through empty halls. Now, walking down the corridor back to his quarters, he passed another pair of officers. They offered him a terse nod and he returned it. Phoebe had been right, of course. Most Sentinels resented him being made an officer over them. They saw their route to duty—through the Academy, rising through the ranks one by one—as the only true way. They didn’t care about his time in the Gibborim, or that he had effectively been special forces for another military. And he couldn’t blame them. How well would Gibborim react to similar intrusion into their closed ranks?

Knight buzzed his quarters. Even before the door opened, he knew something was wrong. The tortures Raziel had put him through had honed senses he’d never understood.

Inside, Phoebe sat on his bunk, head in her hands. Her fingers weaved through her pink-white hair like she was trying to massage tension out of her scalp.

She didn’t look up as he approached and sat down beside her. Knight had the sudden urge to jam a knife into whoever had put the girl in such a state. No one would ever hurt Phoebe. He would never allow that.

He slipped his arm around her and took hold of her scalp, his fingers replacing hers in the massage. Even her head was comfortingly warm.

She moaned slightly, and her head slumped.

“What happened?” he asked.

“They, uh …” She sighed, and then pulled out of his grasp. Phoebe turned on the bed to look into his face. Her icy blue eyes darted around, like she was looking for something. “I was trained on Hazaroth, at the Academy, you know? Aaron and me. He died out there.”

Right. Her brother died in a spacewalk accident. Knight watched her face, unsure what to say. Every day he thought he knew her a little bit better. But in times like this, he never had the right words. They always seemed to lurk on the edge of his mind. Other people had it so damn easy. To have grown up in worlds and times that taught them how to comfort others. To have had parents to give them an example to emulate.

“We just got word … The crew doesn’t even know yet. The Angels destroyed Hazaroth, the Academy … Everything. I, uh … I guess they wanted to make a point about the price of defiance.”

“God … Phoebe …” What could he possibly say to that? Hazaroth had to be a mixed memory for her. She’d lost her brother, but she’d also become a Sentinel there. And despite all the horrors that had happened to him on Gehenna, if the whole planet just disappeared, Knight would still grieve for it. It was where he had come from. It had brought him here. Whatever he was now, whatever good had arisen in him, it was at least in part because of where he came from.

And Phoebe had lost that. She still had her homeworld—although even now she must be worrying over that. The Angels had destroyed New Rome, the capital of Mizraim. Next they had taken out the Sentinel Academy. The message was all too clear. There was no alternative to submission. There would be no compromise, no negotiation.

Knight drew Phoebe into an embrace and held her close. What else could he do? Rachel would know what to say. She should never have left. Her decision to release Caleb without consulting anyone was beyond reckless. It was … selfish. Arrogant. All the things Knight himself had once been. So how much could he blame Rachel for it? She was the one who had helped him find himself. And now, she was Angels-knew-where, on her own. Maybe David knew, but the captain had shown little desire to discuss things with Knight.

He blew out a long breath. “You’re not alone.”

She chuckled, her shoulders shaking in his arms.

Damn. He still didn’t have the right words.

“Sometimes you surprise me,” she said. “Just when I think I have you all figured out, you finally manage to say the right thing.”

“I … did?”

She pulled away and punched his shoulder. “Yup, yup. Don’t make a habit of it. I might die of shock.”

You’re not alone. It had been the right thing to say? It had just seemed so … obvious. Of course he would stay by her side. “Whatever comes, I will be here for you. You know that, right?”

She leaned back against his chest, then pulled him down onto the bunk. She wrapped his arm around her side and lay there. Being pressed against her warmth was like curling up in front of heater—comfort seeping through ever centimeter of his body.

“Yup, yup. I know it now.”

Her warmth settled deep inside his chest, until he wondered if it wasn’t more than just the heat of her body. He had never been able to tell Shirin just how much he felt for her. He had never been able to say the words aloud. He had killed some of the fiercest enemies in the universe. He had fought an Angel with his bare hands. And the thought of trying to say it now left his stomach fluttering …

He pressed his face close to her ear. “I love you.”

“Hmmm. Obviously. What’s not to love? Void, I love me, too. I mean, I’m adorable.”

She hadn’t pulled away. He’d told her—he’d finally said it. And she was still right there in his arms.

“Hey,” she said a moment later. “You know, I love you too.”

A long, deep sigh escaped him. And he let himself breathe, truly and freely.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTEEN

So I tried to reach my brother. Jeremiah would not speak to me. I am truly alone. Maybe that’s where I belonged from the beginning.

Try not to think. That was the key.

Apollo stood before him, face still covered by a hood. Caleb kept his own eyes forward, doing his damnedest to focus only on the task at hand. Not to consider his family, who Apollo already knew to use against him. Not to think of Rebekah, and risk making her a target, too. Not to consider what he’d gladly do to Apollo given half the chance.

No. Think about what the man was saying. Nothing else.

“The Asheran ship will arrive later today. You are to go aboard and take command. You will take the ship into the Expanse of Nod and meet with the Sons of Cain. They will assist you with a further task.”

The … Expanse? Angels had forbidden access to the Expanse since … well, forever. Rumors and legends persisted there, stories of ships vanishing into the void. The Expanse was the domain of pirates and madman—those beyond even the fringes of civilization. And the Sons of Cain were the worst sort of pirates. Ruthless disciples who idolized a legendary murderer. They preyed on any they could, and retreated to a space not even Sentinels dared to tread.

And that was where Apollo wanted him to go. Into the void. To meet with some off rotation gang that would likely slit his throat and sell his insides for a few credits on the black market. Not to mention the last Chairman died out there.

And he had absolutely no choice. Apollo had made that clear already, and Caleb couldn’t afford to push the issue. Not while the Asheran—if that’s what the man was—had Caleb’s family as leverage. If Caleb had been able to take the Ark … No. Don’t think it. He glanced at the man, still unable to penetrate the darkness under that hood.

“Is this really a wise course?”

“Do not question me, Gavet. Go, and be prepared for an important mission.” At that, the man turned and left Caleb’s room.

Caleb collapsed on his bunk. Angels above, what had he gotten himself into? Any illusion that he was in charge of his company had fled. Somehow, somewhere along the line, Apollo had taken control. He had made Caleb the Chairman of Jericho and rendered him nothing but a puppet.

Caleb, be a good little dog and fetch the Ark. Caleb, make an alliance with Asherah. Caleb, go feed your liver to pirates in forbidden space.

Bile rose in his throat, and he stumbled over to the washroom. He vomited into the toilet. His stomach continued to heave, even when nothing remained. And despite himself, he felt wetness building in his eyes.

Fucking fantastic. Here he was, Chairman of Jericho, one of the most powerful men in the universe, puking and weeping like a teenage girl. He slapped the sink.

Which accomplished nothing except making his hand sting. He pulled himself to his feet and washed his mouth, then his face. There was nothing to be gained by self-pity. He had wanted to build a luxurious future for himself and his family. He wanted power, and the perks that went along with it. Well, now he had it all. And along with it, he had gotten the intrigue and deception and sickening games that must always dwell in the halls of the mighty.

So be it. He had brought this fate on himself, and he would see himself through it. Off this ship, away from Apollo, at last he would be free to think. Maybe the pirates would kill him. But if not, if he was free from the Asheran for even a little while, maybe he could make a plan. Find a way to win his freedom forever, without the man reading his thoughts. Of course, maybe Apollo had heard that thought right this moment.

So what if he had.

Fuck you, you sick bastard!

Had he heard that? Caleb suddenly felt ill again. Angels, what if the man had heard it? He wasn’t free yet. And worse … the real clutch of the whole situation … he needed Apollo. If the Angels won, they would likely destroy Caleb and Jericho and quite possibly his family to boot. And he’d be damned before he let anything happen to Ayelet or James or Miriam. He would get in bed with the Adversary itself before he would let the Angels harm his family.

The door to his room buzzed.

Shit. Apollo had heard his mental tirade, hadn’t he? Well … Face the future, Caleb. For the moment, they needed each other. He needed Apollo to stop the Angels, and the man seemed to need Caleb and the authority he supposedly commanded. So it was time to start acting like a partnership again.

He waved open the door, but it wasn’t Apollo who strode in. Rebekah.

“I thought you might be lonely,” she said. “I hadn’t seen you all day.” She began to unbutton her top in slow, sensuous motions.

Caleb watched her, his pulse quickening. He willed himself not to scan through her clothes. No spoiling the show. He needed the reprieve, didn’t he? Didn’t he deserve one, after all he’d been through?

Yes.

Yes.

He rushed over to her and yanked her top apart, snapping buttons in the process. He flung her onto the bunk, and she laughed. And he took her, pouring his fears and frustrations into her. And she just kept laughing, nipping at his ear.

And afterward, she lay panting beside him. Innocent—or as near to it as she could be. He had tainted her, bringing her into his twisted universe of corruption and blackmail. He’d used her body for his own sick lusts and his political aims. He prayed her soul remained intact.

“I have to go away for a while. You’re to take the first available passage back to Sepharvaim.”

“Wh-what? No, I’m going with you.”

Oh, that would be nice. To have an assistant to care for him there. And she would take care of all his needs. She always did. And then the pirates would likely take her for their needs. No. He had cost this girl enough. He was a bastard, but at least he could try to do right by her at the end.

“No, Rebekah. Where I’m going is too dangerous for you. Go home.”

She sat up, oblivious or uncaring how her breasts jiggled enticingly. “What the void, Caleb? You have your way with me, then cast me aside? Send me away?”

“It’s for your own protection. I can’t—”

“Yeah, right. Fine. Have your secret meeting or whatever.” She hopped up, pressed her shirt to her chest, and stormed out without even dressing.

Not much worry for modesty out in the hall, eh.

Poor girl. He’d probably burn in hell for all he’d done to her. And to the others before her.

But maybe he could spare her the same fate.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTEEN

January 22nd

I didn’t know Degana O’Malley as well as I did her brother, but we have bonded over common grief. The woman is warm and has welcomed me to her ship, her home. And I, in my never-ending sense of self-delusion, will allow myself to believe I have found a new home here. We sit and sip tea and speak of fond memories of Thomas. And in the Eden System, cut off from the rest of the universe, we hide from our real troubles. We have a lot in common.

Sure enough, the Anthem was in orbit above Eden. The ship was small compared to the Wheel of Law—a civilian transport, best suited for intergalactic travel. Must have been a hard journey to reach Eden. Based on the external signs of wear on the other ship, David would guess they’d need some time to repair before they could leave.

The Angels had hidden this planet well. And despite all they had done in the last weeks, he couldn’t blame them for that. Eden was a world of ghosts, and Rachel tempted fate, coming back here.

Maybe she didn’t even know all that had happened. Would she have heard about New Rome and Hazaroth? David still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around the idea. He’d spoken to his father on the Mazzaroth a day before the planet fell. He’d let him know he’d be around, thought maybe they could meet for lunch. They’d talked a bit of haver and joked about David outdoing his mum, meeting with Angels and all.

And it would be the last time David ever spoke to his father.

He’d said David’s sister had a new boyfriend. David would never meet him. He’d never see Adina again, either. She’d have been twenty-one this year. Just a wee lass who would never …

A sigh built deep in his chest, but David stilled it. The crew all felt the loss, and they needed him to be strong. They had lost the capital of their empire, and a few days later, the world Sentinel officers trained on. And no one knew where the Angels would strike next.

David heard the whispers, when the crew thought he wasn’t listening. The questions they raised about capitulation. About surrender. The questions he asked himself late at night, when he sat alone on his bunk. In the Conduit, he tried to reach for answers. And the only answers he found lay in fire. The Angels had returned to a universe changed, and their wrath had shaken the foundations of all societies.

All he could do for now was try to find Rachel. Maybe he couldn’t protect Mizraim anymore. Maybe the Angels had destroyed all he stood for. But the woman he loved was out there.

“Hail the Anthem,” he said.

“Channel open,” Kennison said.

“This is the Sentinel battleship Wheel of Law. Please respond.”

A moment later, an Icie woman appeared on the holo display. She was young, maybe twenty-five, and had hair dyed pale green. “Captain?”

“Degana O’Malley?” At her curt nod, he continued. “I’m here to see Rachel Jordan.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Aye, I’m sure. Please tell me the lass didn’t go down to that planet. I must see her, this is urgent.”

A second later, Rachel stepped into view, hand on Degana’s shoulder. “What do you want, Mac?”

“You, lass. Come back over here.”

“So you can throw me in the brig? Not likely.”

David scratched his head. He almost told her if he wanted her in the brig there wasn’t a damn thing the Anthem could do to stop him, but he bit his tongue. “Look, Rach. I know a lot of things got said that maybe shouldn’t have been. But a lot of things happened, too.”

“I … heard.” Rachel clenched her jaw and looked away. She’d been born on New Rome. All she’d known had been there. David had dared hold out hope she hadn’t heard over the Mazzaroth, that he could break it to her gently. As if such news could ever be delivered with tact. As if there was a good way to tell someone they had lost their entire planet.

“Please come aboard, Rach. I have to see you, talk to you in private.”

She folded her arms. “Then why don’t you come aboard the Anthem?”

Stubborn as a bloody mule. Fine. He’d play her game. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”

He hurried from the bridge, pointedly ignoring the look Phoebe gave him on the way out. Minutes later, the ships docked, and he crossed through the airlock.

The Anthem’s airlock let out into a hold, one nearly empty. Normally, cargo or passengers might crowd a ship like this. Knowing the Seekers—or at least what little he knew of them—they probably chose solitude over profit. Of course, Angels knew what kind of future the group would have. Not much point in seeking Eden once it had been found.

Rachel descended a staircase ahead, clearly trying to keep her expression blank. And failing. He might not have been much of an empath, but he could read the tension in her steps. Rachel had always longed for someone to understand her. To see her view of the universe and accept it. Maybe it was finally time.

The distance between them vanished before he knew he was running. And he threw his arms around her. It wasn’t the time for posturing or recriminations.

“I love you, lass. Always have, always will. Everything else is just … just shite. I shouldn’t have been so hard on you. I know you were trying to follow your heart and all.”

She pressed her head against his shoulder. “It tends to get me in trouble.”

“Just a wee bit, aye.”

“New Rome is …”

It was gone. He had met her there, at Testament Flight School. He had thought one day they would retire on the planet together. He could have found work teaching at NRU—assuming he decided to do anything. The Sentinels would have paid him a pension for life.

“Rachel, the Sanhedrin were on the planet.”

“What? What do you mean? Are you saying the entire government is …?”

David ran his fingers through her hair. “The Tabernacle escaped, but it’s missing. Could be the Ark already hunted it down, too. The Sentinel captains are acting mostly on their own. Some are still fighting against Asherah, throwing their lives away because they don’t know what else to do.”

Rachel sighed. “This war with Asherah only serves to divide mankind. We have to bury the enmity between us.”

Easier said than done. Centuries of bloodshed, hatred, and mutual isolation had created an intergalactic rift between the two factions. Why did it not surprise him Rachel wanted to bridge that rift? She always aimed high.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEEN

Elation is about the only word I could come up with … the only word that might describe my sensation on realizing David had come for me. For me. Just as he had done on Gehenna. Maybe I was the one who was blind to the things right in front of me.

The Asheran transport sat waiting by a Conduit Gate just inside the Expanse. Her captain would go no farther. It seemed even in the Confederacy, they had horror stories about the deeps of the Expanse. Which was fine, since this was where Apollo had told him to wait.

The ship featured an observation dome just above the bridge that reminded him a bit of the conference room on Sepharvaim. He never should have left that planet. Its brilliant blue forests. Its warm summer breezes. Its total lack of people trying to kill him.

Instead, Caleb sat in a chair under the dome, chewing his thumb and stewing in the mess he’d made for himself. Before him, the Conduit Gate opened. Looking into it was like looking into an endlessly folding tunnel of every color imaginable. It swayed and shimmered, a rainbow doorway to heaven. And from that doorway emerged a demon—a slender ship covered in cobbled-together protrusions. Lances stuck out from it in all directions, as if someone had crossbred a snake and a porcupine.

Caleb rose. Sons of bitches probably built that thing to intimidate. Well, he supposed it worked. He trod down to the airlock. The Asherans would know what to do. All he had to worry about was what the damn pirates wanted.

Asheran mercenaries formed up around him, MAG rifles leveled at the airlock as it began to open. A trio of men stepped out, the lead of which had a cybernetic patch over his left eye. It shone with eerie red light. Probably a targeting system. The pirates were cyborgs … Which made sense why they were working with Asherah and Apollo.

“I am Caleb Gavet.”

The lead pirate, Eyepatch Boy, stepped forward. He was an Icie, and young, though the implants and scars made him look older. Caleb wouldn’t put it past such a man to inflict the injuries on himself. After all, nanobot regenerators would have healed the damage—unless he wanted the scars.

“Captain Ezra Dana of the Serpent, at your service. Come aboard, Mr. Gavet. There’s work to be done.”

Caleb glanced over his shoulder at the Asheran mercenaries. One of them shrugged.

Damn Apollo. Damn him for sending Caleb to these punks beyond the edges of civilization. Damn him for starting this mess. Damn him for breathing. What was that bastard’s long game? Why send Caleb out here to deal with more minions? Did Apollo truly need him, or was it just a way to keep him in line, to prove who held the power?

Truth was, it didn’t matter. Until he found a way out from Apollo’s grasp, he’d have to do as he was told, and pray the Asheran would save them all from the Angels. Trade one oppressor for another. Caleb nodded, and followed Ezra back to the Serpent.

The pirate ship was organized as a single long corridor with side rooms all the way, leading up to the bridge. The segments were flexible, allowing the ship to sway like a snake or dragon—easy to see where they’d gotten the name. There was no mechanical advantage—at least not that he could see—to having the flexible segments, so it had to be pure aesthetics. He was dealing with children caught up in their own sense of self importance. They were insects in the greater scope of the universe—insects pretending to be gods.

A year ago, these men would have intimidated Caleb. A year ago, the universe had been a different place. He almost laughed. Rachel Jordan had made the universe a place no one would even recognize.

“What’s this mission?”

Ezra waved him onto the bridge. It was cramped, and had room for only three officers, so Caleb had to stand behind the captain’s chair when Ezra sat.

“There’s an abandoned Angel station out near the Great Attractor. We’re meant to destroy it before they can reactivate the thing and use it against us.”

Caleb chuckled, briefly, until he realized the Icie was serious. “Kid, do you have any idea how far away the Great Attractor is? It’s not even in the Local Group. How the void would we get there?”

“Apollo gave us Conduit routes to travel out there.”

A chill settled over his spine, and he found himself actually leaning forward on the chair. Not even a man with connections in the Asheran military should have that information. No human should, unless the Asherans were far more advanced than he gave them credit for.

The known Conduit routes carried mankind all over the Local Group. Some thirty galaxies in the Virgo Supercluster that the Angels had seeded with human civilization. But the Great Attractor was … what, in the Hydra-Centaurus Supercluster? Two hundred million light years away.

Caleb was no astrophysicist, but even he knew about the Attractor. It exerted enough gravity to have the mass of ten thousand galaxies or more. Some people said it was the greatest black hole in the universe. Others speculated it was God himself. Of course, in three thousand years since the Exodus, no human had ever found a way there.

And the Angels had a station? To do what? Harness that kind of energy? Assuming it was even possible, anything that created gravity on that scale … Well, the power would be limitless. A Singularity Drive on a ship was usually less than a meter across, and it could power an entire warship. So if the Angels could harness a singularity—if that’s what it was—a million light years across … They should be able to do anything. Reshape the universe itself.

Was it possible Apollo was right? It no longer mattered how the Asheran knew so much about the Angels. All that mattered was stopping them. Caleb couldn’t allow them to reactivate such a station. It would mean the end of any resistance to the Angelic hegemony.

However long it took, he was going to save the universe.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN

February 1st

I asked Degana to come aboard the Wheel, but she wouldn’t leave her ship. It was her home, and I cannot blame her. Still, I have missed our afternoon tea times and long talks. Maybe something was missing from my life … Quiet friendship without demands or duties or sexual tension. I have set myself aside from other people, and in doing so, I may have paid a higher price than I first imagined. Either way, I’ve called her five times since our parting, and not once with anything noteworthy to discuss.

The Wheel of Law had not lingered at Eden. The truth was, Rachel had begun to lose hope of establishing a long-term colony there. Every test she’d conducted, even working with the Sentinels in the system, indicated the psychic disturbance would be too great for any Psych to tolerate. Worse, even Norms seemed affected if they spent much time on the planet. They were less aware of what was happening to them, but they clearly began suffering some symptoms. Paranoia, irritability, sleeplessness.

The psychic ghosts left behind had tainted humanity’s homeworld beyond redemption. At least that was her fear. So instead, she had gone with David to assist in evacuations. All major planets were being dispersed. Refugees fled to the farthest reaches of the inhabitable universe, to any world remotely terraformed. The farther from major population centers the better. No one knew where the Angels would strike next.

Their attacks had been seemingly random, targeting Mizraim and Asherah equally. But they always targeted heavily populated, well defended areas. As if to prove how truly helpless mankind was against their assault. To demoralize everyone into accepting their rule once again. As the Adversary had done before them.

The tactics were so eerily similar, Rachel caught herself wondering again if the Adversary was an imaginary force made up by the Angels in order to subjugate humanity in the first place. She’d seen the record of a ship like the Ark—chased off, but never destroyed.

And so she found herself back in the isolation wing of the brig—the one place she might get answers.

“Are you certain, lass?” David asked her. He had returned her uniform and commission, and pretended like she had taken only a leave of absence. It seemed easier to play along.

She shook her head. She wasn’t sure of anything anymore. Raziel had played her on Gehenna and led them to this off rotation mess they found themselves in. She’d been so sure if she found Eden it would save the universe. But it had done nothing. Not a damn thing had changed—at least not for the better. She no longer knew who to trust.

And maybe Raziel was the last place she should turn. But sadly, he was also the last place she had left to go.

“We can at least try,” she said.

“He’s gotten into your head before.”

True. But then, he seemed to be able to do that wherever she was on the ship. His mental assault had resumed not long after she returned to the Wheel.

“Let’s wait for Knight,” she said.

“No argument from me.”

A minute later, the Gehennan entered the wing. “Why are we here?”

“Because we’re lost,” Rachel said. “And because if we’re going to find our way, we need Raziel.”

Knight folded his arms across his chest. “You can’t think to trust that little shit.”

Well, no. But trust him enough, she hoped. The Angel had, after all, given them his ship. It was because of Raziel they had escaped the Ark at all. He told her back then she didn’t understand what she’d started. God, how right he’d been. She’d made one mistake after another. She’d refused to give the Ark to Mizraim for fear they would awaken the Angels. She’d refused it to QI for fear they’d exploit it. And in the end, she’d handed it back to the Angels, deluding herself into thinking they alone would not abuse the power. But the Angels were the worst of all. Even Jericho might have given them a better future—one that didn’t involve exploding planets and genocide.

Rachel sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do anymore. We’re losing this … Everything is falling apart. And we can’t gain an edge unless we understand the rules of the game.” She strode over to the Angel’s cell and tapped the smart glass to turn it transparent.

The Angel stared at her, his eyes cold, his head cocked slightly to the side.

“Do you know what’s happened?” she asked, at last.

“I know my brethren have turned on you. I feel fear permeating this ship like a cloud of toxic gas, creeping through every seam. I hear the echoes of sorrow, the grief that threatens to drown your crew in the inexorable tide of the future.”

“They bloody destroyed planets!” David shouted at him. “How could they do that when we asked them here to negotiate for peace?”

“Speak to me with respect, human.”

“I …” David stammered.

Oh, no. This was not going like that. “You’re the one in the brig, Angel. Ditch the pompous attitude if you want to win any points with us.”

“I should have killed him,” Knight mumbled.

Somehow, Rachel doubted that would have made things better. A dead Angel would have bought them nothing.

A glower settled on Raziel’s face. “You thought they would negotiate? Would you negotiate with a monkey? No. You would tell the creature what to do, and if it disobeyed, you would punish it. My brethren see you as far beneath themselves as a monkey is beneath you.”

“We are sentient beings!” she shouted at him.

“So are monkeys. They care about their lives, too. But you do not overly trouble yourself with their happiness if it conflicts with your own aims.”

“And what are their aims?” David asked. “What do the Angels want?”

Raziel was silent a moment, and Rachel actually felt uncertainty wafting off him. Was he so distracted he forgot to guard his emotions, or did he let her feel it on purpose? “They are preparing for war.”

“They’ve already declared war on us,” David said. “They’re killing people by the millions.”

“Kings do not war with pawns—they war with other kings. In breaking the Covenant, you have allowed yourselves to become pawns of the other side. Pawns may be crushed under foot, but they are never the targets.”

Rachel took a step toward the Angel and was stopped by the smart glass. Was he saying …? She opened the door and walked closer.

“Rachel …” Knight said.

She kept advancing. “You’re saying … the Adversary is real?”

“Of course it is real, you arrogant child. You have played around in the dark until you have woken something you do not understand. And in so doing, you have ignited enough fear in my brethren they would sooner quash you than allow you to be used against them. And in that fear, they go too far.”

No. The Angels had made up the Adversary. It was a ship like theirs. A ship no one had ever seen again. But Raziel was admitting the other Angels were wrong? He had known all along where the Ark was, but he never activated it himself. Why?

“Why freeze yourselves at all, then? Why risk losing control?”

At that, the Angel snorted, the sound all too human. “They did not. One of their own, an agent of the Adversary, betrayed them and forced them into cryo slumber.”

An agent of the … Void, so some of the Angels did serve the Adversary? But Raziel still had not awakened his fellow Angels. Even knowing the danger.

“Because,” he said, clearly reading her mind, “I wanted to give humanity a chance to rise on its own. We had long wondered how well your kind would do were we to move on to the depths of space. It was the perfect experiment. And I had other reasons that do not concern you now. If you want me to help you survive what is coming, you must release me.”

She glanced at David, who nodded, and Knight, who shrugged. They were leaving it up to her. And she would again be responsible for shaping the fate of the universe.

“You swear to help mankind?” she asked.

“Yes. I always have.”

Was that possible? That he had always been trying to help? And she’d been too blind to see it? “Release him,” she said to David.

He did so, pressing a panel on the smart glass that caused Raziel’s restraints to pop open.

The Angel stepped down and rubbed his wrists. He flexed his wings once, then cracked his neck. “I’m glad you have come to your senses, Ms. Jordan.”

“The Angel that betrayed you, the Adversary, they’re still out there?”

“The Angel’s name is Apollyon, and yes, he is still out there, along with others of his kind. We must move quickly if we are to stand against him and stave off the Ark’s wrath.”

Rachel nodded and headed out. David leaned in close to her ear. “His presence is going to be a wee bit hard to explain to the crew, lass.”

She shrugged. “You’re the captain. That’s your job.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED NINETEEN

February 9th

Part of me never expected Raziel to agree to help us. Who is this being? Who was he in the Days of Glory? I once thought of him as a creature … I wonder, under the cybernetics and psionics and pretense, if he more a man after all.

The Angels had continued to strike worlds across Andromeda, so Ekron, deep in the Milky Way, made the best meeting location David could think of. He’d spread the word as best he could. Twenty Sentinel captains had come with their ships. Maybe no one else heard, or maybe no one else was able. Many Sentinel ships had tried forming blockades around Conduit Gates, hoping to guard the most populated worlds in the Empire. So far, no such blockade had stopped the Angel advance.

Now, Sentinel ships hid behind moons and uninhabited planetoids, trying to disguise their presence. Sentinels—once the proudest fighting force in the universe—now  stalked the shadows like the very smugglers they once hunted.

They had known the Angel ship was powerful, but had never understood its true potential. Now though, with a full crew of Angels, the monstrosity seemed unstoppable. And so, the captains sat huddled around a table in a secluded office on Ekron, parkas discarded by the entrance.

Rachel and Knight stood nearby. Rachel had advised them not to reveal Raziel’s presence—it would only further confuse the already divided captains. David was forced to agree. Since he’d sat down, his fellow officers hadn’t ceased squabbling.

Hannah Hertz knocked on the table, finally bringing the commotion to a stop. “All right, all right. McGregor called this meeting. So what’ll it be, David? Do you have a plan?”

David scratched his head and sighed. The heat was cranked up high in the office, and with so many people packed inside, it had become a wee bit stifling in here. Everyone was losing patience. Including him. “No, lass. Not a plan, exactly. But we have to unite the Sentinels. If we can come up with a course, any course, and take it to the others …”

“Angels above,” Waller said. “McGregor’s wasting our time. We should be out there, right now, protecting the Empire.”

As usual, David’s former captain had no interest in anything he had to say. David half wondered if the man agreed to come just to antagonize him.

“Oh, we’re doing a damn fine job of that,” Captain Harrison said. “We’ve lost hundreds, maybe thousands of ships. No one can say for sure, and that’s the real problem, isn’t it? We’ve been sundered.”

“The Mazzaroth still works,” Hertz said. “If we just call everyone …”

A dozen people spoke at once.

“You have to know who to call.”

“We’ve lost central command.”

“Without the Sanhedrin we can’t hold together.”

“All right!” David shouted, finally bringing the bickering down to whispers. “All right. What we’re doing is not working. We’re spread too thin to protect the entire Empire without knowing where the Ark will strike next. We’re going to need a new strategy. Something the Angels won’t expect.”

“We know that, McGregor,” Captain Jacobs said. “But unless you’ve got a suggestion …”

“Aye. I do. But you’re not going to like it.” Void, David didn’t like it either. He’d been mulling it over for days, since before he’d even called the meeting. It was the last thing in the universe he’d want to do. But the holy universe was bloody ending all around them. “Asherah.”

“We have no resources to strike them now,” Hertz said. “And they’ve withdrawn their offensive, so they’re not a threat at the moment.”

“I’m not suggesting we invade, Hannah,” he said. “I’m suggesting we … we try to ally with them against a common threat.” With the cyborgs who had murdered his mum. With the people who had invaded the Empire and begun slaughtering Mizraim citizens. With the monsters … who were still more human than the Angels. The one faction he could be absolutely sure would not capitulate.

Waller stood, towering over the rest of the table. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this, even from you. Even from a traitor like you—you would sell us out to the enemy! You would have us bend knee to the abominations that have threatened our space for centuries! Does your treason know no bounds, McGregor?”

Wanker was calling him a traitor again. Knight had told him to kill Waller back then, but David had insisted the man face trial. Instead of punishing him, the Sanhedrin had given the bugger back his ship. David rose slowly, staring right into the Anakim’s eyes. “I am no traitor.”

“A court martial said otherwise, McGregor! And just because the Shekhinah gave you a pardon doesn’t mean the rest of us should.”

“The Shekhinah is the highest authority in Mizraim,” Harrison said. “Its decision is good enough for me.”

“Now look here,” David said. “The Asherans are in an even worse spot than us. Half the conflict we’ve ever had with them, half the reason for the war is because they abandoned the Covenant and we didn’t.”

“Sounds like a fair reason for war,” Hertz said.

“We are fighting against the bloody Angels, lass. That goes a wee bit beyond abandoning the Covenant. We’ve declared war on our former masters.”

“There’s been no declaration of war,” Jacobs said.

“They’re blowing up bloody planets!” David pushed down on the table, and took a deep breath to steady himself. He needed to stay calm to deal with the situation.

Rachel coughed from some distance behind him, and all heads turned toward her. “Whether anyone likes it or not, we are at war with the Angels. Unless all of you are ready to submit to their terms and authority, we have to fight. And we know Asherah is doing the same. Ask yourselves if your ire against them is only because they already turned their backs on the Angels.”

Waller jabbed a finger in her direction. “Jordan is not a captain. She’s not even a Sentinel, and she has no business at this debate.”

Rachel had been given a commission by the Shekhinah, but David wasn’t sure that mattered at the moment—especially since she had once resigned. “Regardless, she’s right. And I strongly suggest you start listening to her. Because we cannot do this alone.”

The looks on the other captains’ faces told him the answer before the shouting resumed. They wouldn’t side with Asherah. Too few of them could see past the same hatred that had blinded him for so many years.

And that hatred would cost them all.

Divided, humanity could not stand against the Angels.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY

Raziel guards his emotions well. Even if I try, it’s hard to read him. But sometimes, I can feel the tension roiling beneath the surface. Fears so deep I could drown in them. As if he sees something beyond what we even imagine. I asked him, once, what darkness lurked behind his eyes. He quoted the Codex, saying ‘the Road to Hell is Paved with Good intentions.’

Knight leaned against the wall, watching the Sentinel captains argue. By the sound of it, this whole meeting had been a waste of time. The only good thing liable to come out of this whole trip was giving Phoebe the chance to see her family again. And since David had asked Knight to come along as security, he didn’t even have the chance to apologize to them for before.

In the midst of the commotion, David turned, looking at the door with a mask of consternation on his face. His gaze flitted to meet Knight’s, and his eyes went wide. Prescient insight?

Knight grabbed Rachel and shoved her away from the door. A second later it exploded into the room. The blast took the nearest Sentinel and hurled him over the table. A wave of heat washed over Knight. He curled into a ball and folded his arms over his head, protecting it from the scorch. The second it faded he tapped the control on his suit and formed his helmet.

Smoke filled the chamber, but his suit helped him see through it. Men and women poured in through the openings, MAGs in hand. They wore gas masks and goggles to see through the smoke. One leveled his weapon at David, who was rising, even as most of the other Sentinels choked on the smoke or tried to get their helmets up.

Knight reached out with his mind and telekinetically ripped the gun from the man’s hand. He flipped onto the table, caught the weapon as it flew toward him, and fired. MAG rounds slammed into the attacker.

Others returned fire. Rounds ricocheted off Knight’s suit. His HUD reading for his kinetic shields diminished rapidly as the attackers focused their fire on him. He shot down another man, flipped onto the wall and kicked off it, landing in their midst. Too close for them to use auto fire without risking friendly fire.

He kicked out a man’s knee while grabbing another’s head and slamming it into the smoldering wall.

Pulse shots took down an assailant to his left. David’s Smogger genes must have helped him recover faster than the others.

Knight caught a man’s arm and twisted, breaking it at the elbow. He shoved his screaming victim into his fellows, and two of them collapsed in a heap.

Other invaders had rushed in through the hole in the wall and moved in on the recovering Sentinels. They struck with stun batons. Those Sentinels who had not formed helmets yet went down, painful shocks to their brains that Knight remembered all too well.

These little shits were Redeemers. He hated Redeemers.

Knight spun, time slowing around him, and landed a dozen body blows against the nearest man. He jerked an elbow into a woman’s face, shattering it, then slammed both palms over a man’s temples. His enemies collapsed in heaps around him. An Icie woman leveled a MAG at him. Knight jerked to the side and a slug soared past him and into one of her companions. He grabbed her arm and twisted, bending her over her own gun. Then he squeezed her hand until the MAG fired. At point blank range the slug tore right through her nanomesh, out her back, and punched a hole in the ceiling.

A pair of Redeemers came at him with stun batons. Knight evaded a swing, caught his attacker’s wrist, and shoved the baton into another man’s face. A heartbeat later he broke the Redeemer’s arm.

Pulses soared through the air around him. Knight rolled to the ground, getting clear. The Sentinels had recovered, and they would make short work of the remaining Redeemers.

One of the invaders roared, charging at him. Big man. Knight had seen him before. Rachel’s brother.

Knight ducked and evaded blow after blow. Jeremiah Jordan swung was fervor and rage, but no control. Fool had let his fury overwhelm his obvious training, and it would cost him.

Knight dove into a roll and came up behind Jeremiah. From a crouch he aimed a downward hook at the Redeemer’s knee. The punch shattered the kneecap and the man fell, shrieking in pain. Before the Redeemer hit the ground, Knight had an arm around his throat. He landed a tight blow on Jeremiah’s kidney, and then another.

Fucker wouldn’t be getting up any time soon. Knight dropped his moaning victim, then moved to help the Sentinels secure the remainder of the Redeemers.

They must have sent three full Hearts in. Twenty-one Redeemers, probably hoping to capture as many Sentinel captains as possible. Knight had no idea how they’d found out about this secret meeting. He supposed someone had seen the Sentinels and sent word. Men like the Redeemers had loyalists everywhere. Sycophants too blind to see the zealots for what they really were—fools clinging to myths, too afraid to face the new reality that had been revealed to them.

“Rachel!” he shouted. “Rachel, are you all right?”

She rose from the floor. By now, she had her helmet up too, but he could hear her coughing from beneath it. She must have taken quite a lungful of smoke.

“Seems like your bro missed you,” Knight said.

Rachel cleared her throat, then knelt beside Jeremiah. She sighed. “It’s hardly a surprise the Redeemers would pledge themselves to the Angels. I just wish …”

“It doesn’t matter what you wanted for him. He made his choice, and that explosion would have killed you.”

“I’m sure he didn’t know I was here, or standing so close to the door.”

“Does that matter?”

She rolled Jeremiah over, then hissed at the state of his knee. Bastard deserved it. “Of course it matters, Knight. He’s my brother.”

Phoebe was right. Knight really didn’t understand family. The only reason he could see not to kill Jeremiah was so they could interrogate him. But he was Rachel’s brother, so he’d let her decide what to do with the punk.

Knight examined the wreckage. Four Sentinels had died, including the one caught in the initial blast. Jacobs, he thought. Fifteen Redeemers were dead, six captured.

Almost twenty people dead in seconds. Humans killing each other was nothing new. Knight had been doing it all his life. It had been the very reason for his existence. And yet, every human he killed was one less to stand against the Angels. Humanity’s real threat had been revealed.

And maybe Rachel was right. If they couldn’t find a way to put differences behind them and stand united, they would fall. Did that mean he should be more careful about killing so wantonly? Perhaps. But the Redeemers had sided with the Angels. So perhaps the best he could do for mankind was to wipe out such people as swiftly as possible.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-ONE

February 10th

I keep thinking about what Raziel said. Did he mean I was leading us toward hell with my good intentions, or that he had already set that path in motion? Unfortunately, I now find more pressing concerns in the present.

Rachel had paid far too many visits to the brig on the Wheel of Law. The Sentinels on duty nodded at her with familiarity, and she returned the gesture. It was getting to the point she should ask their names. She sighed and moved down the hall to her brother’s cell.

Since a conversation with Miah was about as much fun as sticking her head in a Singularity Drive—and about as productive—she’d put this off as long as she was able. Still, the man was her brother. And part of him, however buried, still cared about her. She knew he did … in his own twisted way.

She tapped the smart glass, revealing herself to him.

He leapt up from his cot and ran toward the glass, stopping only to slam his fist against it. Despite herself, Rachel jerked back from his fury. It seeped out of the cell and clogged her mind, choking her thoughts in the blind oppression of rage. All the little things she planned to say to win him over slipped from her mind.

“What the void were you thinking, Miah? You attacked a room full of Sentinels. These people are trying to save us and you’re lucky to be alive at all.”

“I would gladly give my life to bring down such traitors. Such khapiru. They stand against the Angels. And you have become a living blasphemy.”

A blasphemy? Because she had taken the Ark? Was that how he saw her now? Was that what her father thought of her? It didn’t matter what either of them thought. It shouldn’t matter what they thought. They were her family … but they had turned their backs on her. Or she had turned her back on them. Either way, she shouldn’t care.

“Your precious Angels have rained destruction on fourteen planets. Fourteen that we know of. They have destroyed well over a thousand Sentinel ships. I cannot even begin to measure the lives they have taken. These creatures have become the new Adversary, Miah.”

Her brother sputtered, a wave of paroxysm filling the air between them, and pounded on the glass as if he could even dent it. “How … How dare you! To compare our saviors to … Such things would see you burn in hell, Rachel!” Her brother ground his teeth and shook his head, then looked up at her. “Repent your blasphemies and let us wash your sins. It may be the last hope for your soul. Please, sister, you have been led astray.”

Rachel scoffed. She would willing let them wash her sins—destroy all she was with their brainwashing—about twenty years after the heat death of the universe. “Have you heard nothing else I said? The Angels are engaged in genocide.”

“You have given them no choice. They must punish those who have broken the Covenant. They must make an example of the ones who failed them, so others can be led back to the righteous path. Think, Rachel. Think of the things Father tried to teach us as children.”

This was pointless. She’d hoped to get through to her brother. She’d always hoped to somehow reach him or her father. Like an abused girlfriend she kept running back for more, always somehow convinced this time could be different. She’d fooled herself into thinking the right words would lift the veil from Miah’s eyes and mend all that had been broken between them. But the man didn’t hear her words. All he saw was his blind faith in the Angels. Even in the wake of their destruction, the evidence of their terrible wrath, he fell in line without question.

All he had ever seen was the Angels. Their every word was gospel, and he was a willing recipient.

She would never change him.

And the thought that she had truly lost him forever, that her brother would have to spend the rest of his life in a cell because of his convictions … God, how could she allow that? She pressed her hand to the glass, somehow hoping to still the tremble in her chest.

“I’m so sorry, brother.” She’d launched a crusade to save the universe, and only managed to further hurt those who mattered the most.

“So you admit you were wrong? Good, Rachel. Good. That’s the first step toward redemption.” He returned her gesture, pressing his hand opposite hers. “Just open this cell, and we can go from here. Together.”

She shook her head. She had failed him, but not the way he thought. She’d failed to save him … because he would have never heard her. He was so blinded by tradition, by … Angels.

Angels.

He believed only in Angels.

“Miah … There’s someone I want you to meet.”

Her brother sighed and sat back down on the cot. “I am in no position to refuse.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

She ran down the hall, past the Sentinel guards, and took the lift up toward the executive suite David had given Raziel. The quarters were normally intended for Imperators or ambassadors aboard the ship, and it was the finest he could have given the Angel. Rachel wasn’t sure Raziel slept or much cared what kind of chambers he had, but it seemed to matter to David. And to the crew. In a way, they were all almost as devout as Jeremiah. Thirty-one centuries of tradition had led them to worship Angels like gods. And now, even fighting against the Angels, forced to stand against their gods, the spirits of the crew seemed buoyed by having an Angel on their side.

She felt it, the subtle shift, the increase in confidence permeating any room Raziel walked into. She wouldn’t put it past the Angel to augment the effect with his own psionic powers. Perhaps that was how Angels inspired such fervent loyalty—by enhancing the emotions humans already felt in their presence.

She moved to buzz his door, but it opened before she could. The Angel stood before her, wings folded behind his back, hands at his side. He wore his hood up, as he often did. She could only assume it was a deliberate decision to add to his mystique, a choice to enhance the impression he made in the minds of the crew.

As long as he was on her side, he could have his affectations.

“I need your help.”

“Indeed.”

“I mean, I want you to talk to my brother.”

“Yes, Ms. Jordan. You have been broadcasting your thoughts, your needs, from the moment you stepped off the lift.”

Oh. So he’d been reading her mind this whole time. She’d known he could, of course, it was just … eerie to think of him in her head without her even realizing it. But then, he said she’d been broadcasting. Meaning she was so fixated on an idea, an idea involving the Angel, he probably would have picked it up without trying.

“You’ll help me?”

Raziel motioned for her to lead the way. She did, guiding him back to the brig. As they returned, every Sentinel stood at attention for their passing. Raziel gave no acknowledgement, but Rachel felt a slight trepidation drifting off him. Was it possible the Angel, who had been so long imprisoned here, actually felt anxiety in returning? She kept her eyes studiously forward, trying to give no hint she had picked up the too-human emotion from her companion. Before this, she had almost never felt anything coming off him. She had thought maybe Angels had no emotions, or emotions simply too different from humans for her to pick them up. But perhaps it was just that Raziel was so guarded in his feelings. And the thought that he felt something, that coming here made him even the least bit uncomfortable—and he did it anyway, for her—somewhat endeared the Angel to her.

Maybe humans and Angels were not so very different.

The Angel snorted. He’d heard that thought, hadn’t he? Well, let him. If there was to be peace, it would only come when Angels stopped seeing themselves as above humans.

Raziel stepped in front of Jeremiah’s cell, and her brother rose, only to fall to his knees before the Angel. Awe and fear and adoration so filled the brig, Rachel almost did the same. Jeremiah sat with bent knees and head, as if awaiting orders.

“Stand up, human.” Raziel extended his wings, clearly intending Jeremiah should revel in his glory. Rachel had to admit, the shimmering razors were impressive. “Your motives may be pure, but your actions are misguided. My brethren have taken the wrong path. Be careful you do not follow them down it.”

Her brother stood as ordered, standing rapt at attention, as Raziel began to speak of the wrongs done in the name of Angels. And Rachel watched as Miah’s face fell. She sensed it, as his convictions faltered, and as he felt as if the ground beneath him gave way, to suck him into a singularity.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO

February 12th

Raziel said the Angels had once considered leaving humanity on their own as an experiment. He said that was part of why he didn’t wake them. In the end, he seemed disappointed in us … But then, he seemed disappointed in the Angels too.

Under the circumstances, David had feared having an Angel on the bridge would divide the crew. The Sentinels were at war with them, after all. But Raziel’s presence had the opposite effect, it seemed. No one questioned it. They moved as if the Angel were a captain himself, or an Imperator, even.

David had seen Raziel in battle, and he was glad the Angel was on his side. With a little luck, that would last. Releasing his former enemy from the brig had been a leap of faith—one born of desperation. And David was desperate.

So desperate, he had agreed to allow Raziel to liaise with Quasar Industries to create an alliance with the Sentinels. They waited on the edge of an uninhabited system in the Phoenix Dwarf galaxy. He supposed everyone would be praying, as was he, the Angels didn’t know what they were up to or where to find them.

Rachel shot him a look he suspected was meant to reassure, and David nodded at her. She might not be able to do much in this situation, but her mere presence on the bridge did as much for him as Raziel’s did for the rest of the crew.

Or at least, the crew save Knight. The Gehennan moved around the Angel like a cat stalking prey, never taking his eye off Raziel. Always watching. Waiting for a betrayal. David couldn’t fault Knight, considering what Raziel had put him through.

“A pair of QI ships just exited the Conduit,” Rachel said. “No, make that four ships. Three cruisers and a battleship.”

Perhaps the megacorp was wary of a trap. Or perhaps they merely sent as much as they were able. He hoped the former—if QI couldn’t muster a bigger fleet than this, their effect on an alliance would be limited.

Raziel’s form flickered and his wings vanished. He’d returned to the Galizur disguise. So QI didn’t know he was an Angel, and he wasn’t ready to reveal it, just yet.

“What is that, holograms?” he asked.

“Yes, captain. Holograms and telepathic suggestion. We can use such things to pass for human.”

“How many Angels are out there, apart from the Ark?” Rachel asked.

“I don’t know. But chances are good most of them will not be our allies. Hail the lead ship.”

Before David could even pass on the order, his crew opened hailing. He wasn’t sure he liked them following the Angel’s orders without checking with their captain first. He supposed he’d have to forgive them. It was less an act of defiance than an instinctual reaction he knew all too well.

A holo display popped up, showing a QI businessman in a sharp suit. “Director Blake,” the man said. “We were relieved to hear from you. The Chairman feared you’d been lost.”

“Hardly,” the Angel said. “I was delayed. Has the Chairman agreed to my proposal?”

“Yes sir. We’ll place the full QI fleet at Sentinel disposal to stand against the Ark. I’m in communication with a number of other ships. We can have up to a hundred destroyers here within the hour.”

“Good. Coordinate with Captain McGregor.”

Aye, that was his cue. David stepped up to the display. He’d had as many Sentinel ships watching for the Ark as possible, trying to track its movements. With the added QI ships, maybe they could stage an ambush the next time the Angels decided to destroy a system. They’d have to move fast, which meant making sure the fleet was at least in the right galaxy. Last he heard, the Ark was spotted back in Triangulum—Asheran space. It gave them a little time to plan.

“How many battleships can you bring to the edge of the Asheran border?” he asked.

“Given a couple of weeks …”

“One week.”

The QI suit grunted, and looked down at a tablet for a minute. “Forty, at most,” he said at last. “Maybe a few less.”

Well, forty wasn’t bad. Combined with the Sentinel fleet, they might have a chance. “All right, make preparations. Remember, no one engages without my signal. If the Ark is spotted, relay the message and get the void clear.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Mac,” Rachel said, “we’ve got an incoming Mazzaroth signal from the Wake of Stars.”

That was Hannah Hertz’s ship. She was supposed to be gathering as many Sentinel ships to the cause as possible. He prayed to God for a little good news.

“Bring it up,” he said.

Hannah’s face flickered on the screen. Sparks shot around her bridge, and a trickle of blood ran down her forehead.

“Bloody void! Hannah?”

“David …” She wiped the blood from her brow. “We were staging in the Andromeda III Satellite when the Ark jumped in. Someone must have tipped them off.”

Shite. He should have known, even among Sentinels, some would hold so much loyalty to Angels they would act against their own captains.

“How bad was it, lass?”

“Bad. We tried to hold them off. They were between us and the Gate. I’ve … I’ve never seen anything like it, David. Ships dropped off the screen as fast as drones. A few of us escaped past them into the Conduit. I think … I think they let some of us escape. Hoping we’d serve as a warning.”

A chill settled over his chest, and he felt lightheaded. The look on her face told him all he needed to know, but still he had to ask. “How many … how many Sentinels did we lose?”

“I don’t know. Too many to count. We had massed nearly a thousand ships, David. I’d guess no more than ten escaped.”

A murmur ran through the bridge. Void, he should have had this conversation in private.

“Did she say a thousand?” the QI suit’s hologram asked. David had forgotten the man was even still on the line.

“Carry on with the plan,” David told him, then waved for Rachel to cut the call.

“Hannah, get whoever you can. Stay in communication, but don’t congregate. And get back to Andromeda.”

The Andromeda III Satellite galaxy put the Angels in far too easy striking distance of the central Andromeda galaxy, the core of the Mizraim Empire. Even with New Rome lost, there were many densely populated worlds in Andromeda.

A thousand ships. That was almost ten percent of all the Sentinel ships in the universe, lost in a single battle. Such a thing was unthinkable. Gathering a fleet that large again would leave countless systems unwatched and unprotected. It would …

David felt lightheaded.

“Hannah, I’m sorry. I’ll be in touch. Mazzaroth off.”

He took a breath to steady himself. The crew needed that. They needed to see him strong, while they felt the universe crumbling beneath them. They needed him to be the beacon in the night. And they couldn’t afford to see him falter.

So he wouldn’t falter.

He would protect what they had left.

“Take us to Andromeda.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-THREE

February 15th

I’d be a fool not to consider Raziel might still be a spy for his brethren. And yet, he truly seems repentant for their actions. Did six hundred years living as a human change the Angel?

At long last the Serpent escaped the Conduit, jumping back to normal space. Time had bled away in the endless journey and Caleb felt numb, as if the last weeks had been spent sleepwalking. The ship’s Psych pilot seemed even more on edge, jumping at every shadow during the short reprieves Captain Dana gave him from the Conduit.

Finally, they were here. The Gate opened not into a system, but into deep space, on the edge of a black hole so massive it defied belief. Caleb slowly walked to the window, transfixed by the horrible gaping void before him. The accretion disc stretched so far beyond the range he could see, he might almost not recognize it for what it was.

But this was it. The Great Attractor. It truly was a black hole. In this case, the name fell utterly short. This was … the void itself. It was a tear in reality, consuming the universe. It was like looking into the eye of God and seeing something so alien his heart clenched and his breath failed.

But he … could not … look … away.

He tried to speak, but no words came. Even this far out, the singularity’s gravity was pulling the ship. Probably dilating time, too. God knew how much time would be passing every second they spent here.

An alien presence pressed against the edge of his mind. There was something … alive out here.

The Angel space station. It had to be. Caleb swallowed and tore himself away from the window. Scanners were having trouble picking up anything out there in … that thing.

Why in God’s name did the Angels build a Conduit route here? Why build a Gate or a station at the maw of something so monstrous?

On the edge of the scanners, he picked up a reading—not so much a station he could detect, but a break in the surrounding light.

“Ezra, bring us around there.”

The Icie shook himself, and told the pilot to do so.

As the serpentine ship turned, Caleb tried to focus on the station. He tried to pretend the abyss outside was just a background nebula. Best to forget the end of existence waited just outside.

The station was black, shimmering like the Ark, and vaguely resembled an Angel itself. It was taller than it was wide, ending in a point-like tail. From the upper tiers stretched seven arched pylons like arms—or wings.

“Angels above, that’s the thing?” Ezra Dana asked. “It’s … marvelous. Has to be ten kilometers tall.”

Caleb sighed, trying not to shudder. “Don’t use that expression.”

“What?”

“Angels above. The Angels have become our enemies. And we’re here to destroy the damned station. Assuming you have any way to do that.”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, we stole a QI prototype weapon. Apollo was kind enough to tip us off a while back. Takes too long to charge to use against a ship, but that thing’s not moving.”

Caleb kept his eyes on the Angel station. Something was tingling on the edge of his mind, though he was no Psych. Was the Angel station alive, like the Ark? It would make sense. And certainly it would be less horrifying than even considering that the Great Attractor itself might … No. Focus on the task at hand.

“What kind of prototype?” he asked.

“Antiproton cannon. Apparently QI tried to modify the enhancements Asherans made on ion cannons to increase explosive potential.”

A new line of destructive weapon. Designed to fight the Ark?

“Power it up.” He wanted to get the void away from this place as soon as possible.

“Charge the cannon,” Ezra said. “Give it a couple of minutes.”

The lights dimmed throughout the ship. Several consoles went dead, including all the other weapons. The ship’s Singularity Drive must not have been large enough to power the weapon effectively. He supposed it was a small comfort that most ships wouldn’t be able to operate this latest doomsday device.

“Ever wonder what lies beyond a black hole?” Ezra asked. “I mean, if you stare deep enough into it …”

“Don’t. Only oblivion lies beyond. The tidal forces would rip you apart long before you reached the heart of the singularity.”

“But some say it could lead to another universe.”

“Even if that’s true, there’s no way to survive the journey. Focus on the task at hand.”

Caleb felt sick. This place was not meant for humans. He could see why the Angels never showed mankind the route out here. They had opened the Local Group to human exploration, but nothing beyond. Someone like Rachel Jordan might consider that a shackle placed on humanity. After seeing this … thing … Caleb wasn’t sure he still did. Maybe the universe was greater, larger, than people were ready for.

He shook his head. When had he become so philosophical? All he used to care about was money and what his assistant had between her legs. And here he was, two hundred million light years from known space, preparing to destroy an Angel station. And staring into the maw of oblivion.

He just wanted to go home. He wanted to kiss his wife and hug his children. He wanted to wash his hands of politics and power and war. But he had opened a door that couldn’t be closed. He couldn’t go home to Ayelet until he could be sure she would be safe from Apollo and the Sentinels and the Angels and everyone else.

“We’re ready to fire,” Ezra said.

“Then do it.”

The ship jerked violently as the cannon discharged. It fired a stream that looked like an ion beam, instantly impacting the station. A cascade of antimatter explosions engulfed the outpost. And then, just as the power was completely draining from the pirate ship, the station imploded. The singularity core almost immediately began to merge with the greater black hole.

A shockwave escaped the implosion, washing outward in a blast that made Caleb’s ears pop.

“Get us the void out of here,” he said.

“We’ve got minimal power,” Ezra said. But at least the pilot limped the ship away.

Something shrieked in Caleb’s mind, and he stumbled to the deck. Several other crewmen grunted, and the Psych pilot sobbed. Was that the death rattle of the station? Caleb pulled himself back over to the window.

The accretion disk looked like it was spinning faster. As if something had awakened it.

And Caleb couldn’t blink, couldn’t turn away from the maw of the beast. It was like an eye, watching him, looking right through to his soul, petty shriveled thing that it was.

And judging his sins.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FOUR

February 24th

The Codex has a phrase … Yetzer Hara, which is usually translated as a ‘will toward evil’. I’m sure the Angels would claim the Asherans, and all humans, had been tempted by evil. In their blindness and arrogance they see themselves as supreme, and fail to consider their own actions might stem from that same dark will.

David dared not arrange more than a handful of Sentinel ships together. After the disaster in the A3, he couldn’t risk someone informing the Angels. Instead, he’d called only four captains together, into his war room on the Wheel. Those in charge of four battleships—a commodity Sentinels were beginning to run low on.

Waller came—to David’s chagrin. Hertz was here too, and having a heated debate with Captain Tong.

“Nice to see you survived a battle that killed thousands of our people,” John Tong said. “It’s not like it’s a Sentinel’s duty to defend his brethren at any cost.”

“Enough,” David said. “There was nothing Hannah could have done, and neither could you. The Ark let her escape so she could warn us—frighten us. Don’t let it work.”

“Too late,” Tong said. “Have you seen the men? Everyone is frightened.”

Aye, and so was David, but no one needed to hear that. What they needed was a new strategy. Something bold and unexpected. Something to turn the tide, and sentiment.

“Look, now we’ve got QI on our side. And Raziel assures me they’re working on prototype weapons—state of the art—”

“Right,” Waller said. “So now we’re fighting the Angels and you’re working with one of them. And apparently you’ve had him for some time. Why does it not surprise me you’ve been holding out, McGregor?”

David glowered. There had been no keeping that quiet, so he hadn’t tried. The moment an Angel roamed free on the Wheel, he knew his crew would spread the word to their friends and lovers on other ships. Forbidding it would have only weakened his authority by giving people cause to violate his orders.

“Raziel is here to help us, against his kind. We have no choice but to trust him, and I could not afford to reveal such an edge until the time was right.”

“You mean until desperation forced your hand,” Waller said.

Aye. That was pretty much the truth of it.

The door opened and Phoebe entered the room, her face a mask of uncertainty. “Sir, the Tabernacle has reappeared. The Shekhinah is making a broadcast.”

David balked. In six hundred years the Shekhinah had never directly addressed the public. It had acted through the Imperators, giving a human face to its rule. The Imperators were all dead now, but if the Shekhinah had survived, he would have expected it to appoint new ones or arrange an election.

“Mazzaroth on,” he said. “Display Tabernacle broadcast.”

A digitally created woman’s face filled the screen. It was silver, clearly intended to mimic human features, while giving no illusion the speaker itself was human.

“This is the Shekhinah, final authority of the Mizraim Empire. All Sentinels are hereby ordered to submit to Angel authority. All Sentinel ships are to return to the Tabernacle to await further orders. The Angels, rightful lords of humanity, have returned. All action against their will is to cease immediately. I repeat—stand down and return to the Tabernacle. Coordinates will follow.”

The transmission cut off.

David stared at the screen, at a loss. The computer must have heard about the massacre at Andromeda III. It had decided its authority was lost in any event, and the best chance for its survival was to submit to its former masters. The cold logic of a machine, albeit one with sentience and emotion. And fear? Might it fear for itself? Or did it truly believe this was the best choice for its people? After all, the computer’s mandate was to bring order to humanity.

“I guess that’s that,” Tong said.

“I … I don’t know what choice we have now,” Hertz said.

David shook his head. “Of course we have a choice. The Shekhinah may have been the authority of the Sentinels in the past, but things have changed.”

Waller shoved him, and David stumbled back. “Listen to this treason! How many ways are you going to break your oath, McGregor? You should have been spaced already, and now you want to act against the Tabernacle?”

David rose to his full height, and though he was a tall man, Waller still dwarfed him. But he looked his former captain in the eyes. “It’s not treason, Captain. It’s revolution. The Shekhinah has been forced to capitulate. It feels a return to servitude is better than risking the further wrath of the Angels. I do not. I am not willing to surrender all we’ve made for ourselves to accept them as our masters once again.”

Rachel had shown him the error in that way of thinking. The Angels were arrogant, violent. They refused to see humanity had grown in their absence. And if mankind simply submitted, they would never stand on their own. The Angels would ensure an eternity of servitude. Even Raziel felt they had gone too far—and that was all the proof David needed Rachel was right.

Waller pointed a finger at his chest. “You will get what’s coming to you, McGregor. And I, for one, am leading my ship back to the Tabernacle. I truly hope they send me to bring you in for trial.” The Anakim stormed out of the war room.

For a split second David considered having his Sentinels restrain the man. But that would violate the spirit of these talks, and only lead to a shooting battle with the Logos. The Wheel couldn’t afford that right now.

“Waller’s right,” Tong said. “It’s over. Sorry, David.” The other captain departed as well.

David frowned and shook his head, then looked to Hertz. “Hannah, please.”

“David … I saw the Ark destroy a thousand Sentinel ships. I watched the biggest disaster in Sentinel history.”

He could understand her fear. She had more reason than anyone to want to submit. She had witnessed the undeniable power of the Angels. She had felt their total lack of remorse. He couldn’t blame her.

But he needed her. He needed every ally he could gather. “If you give in now, what do those deaths mean? Is it enough that those hundreds of thousands of men and women died to prove an Angel point? Is that the message?”

“So you would have us fight to the last, whittled away to our own extinction? You would have us all die in futile defiance?”

David thumped his chest. “What does this uniform mean, Hannah? We protect mankind from any threat. We walk in the dark of space to guard against foes within and without. We do not bend. We do not break. We are the first and last line of defense against the night.”

Hannah sighed. “All right, David. But you know it may mean fighting some of our own people, now.”

He knew it. He would need to act fast, to sway as many Sentinels to his cause as he could. If they submitted, it would be too late.

Mankind was fast running out of chances for freedom.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-FIVE

March 10th

We are watching Armageddon unfold around us. The death toll is already almost beyond measure. And despite it all, I feel hope.

For weeks David had traveled from system to system, slowly building his alliance. Rachel always did a good job of inspiring people. Most of her life, she’d been telling them things they didn’t want to hear. Now, she spoke truths they had to hear. And David was grateful to have her by his side, not only for the sake of his heart, but for the sake of the cause.

Almost two hundred systems had signed on in a pact to stand against the Angels. He had to pray all of them were true to their word, and none secretly feeding intel to the Angels. But the truth was, even if they were true, signing the pact made them targets. The Ark had already taken out one of the member worlds, and it made it increasingly hard to sign others.

“We’re not going to win this, are we?” Rachel said. She sat on David’s bunk, topless, leaning on her elbow.

He drank in her rich, beautiful skin with his eyes. Even after making love, he still couldn’t get enough of her. But fear clouded her face, tension creasing her forehead. David shifted closer and took her face between his hands.

“I don’t know, lass.” It wasn’t what she needed to hear, but she’d know if he lied. And he owed her the truth—the horrible truth that, maybe, they could not win this. More than half the Sentinel fleet had obeyed the Shekhinah’s command. Which meant they now faced not only the Ark, but his own former brothers-in-arms. Word was, the Tabernacle had begun sending Sentinel ships out again, establishing the new Mizraim Empire. An Empire ruled by Angels.

He had heard the rumors from worlds he’d visited. People were calling it the Empire of Returned Glory. Some even welcomed the Angels back. For so long they had been conditioned to worship them … Now, seeing their terrible fury, they also feared the Angels. Reverence and terror intermingled to create a subservient population.

A year ago, David would have lined up right along those people, to kneel down before beings he had believed were saviors. Now, the universe had grown too complex.

His door buzzed.

He shared a look with Rachel, who grabbed an undershirt and slipped it on.

David did the same. “Open.”

Raziel strode into the room. “The time has come.” The Angel’s eyes lingered on Rachel a moment before locking on David.

Not for the first time, David wondered how Raziel felt about Rachel. Through her, he had been imprisoned. He had manipulated her, but she had turned the tables on him in the end. But now they were all stuck as allies, and he had no choice but to trust the Angel. “Time for what?”

“We are near the Laish system. There is a secret QI outpost there. Set a course immediately.” Raziel didn’t wait for an answer, just turned and left.

David scratched his head. He’d never heard of the Laish system, but it was hardly surprising. If it had a small population, it wouldn’t have come up in his duties.

He looked to Rachel, who just shrugged. All right, then. “McGregor to Dana,” he said over the comm. “Take us to the Laish system.”

“Sir. Aren’t we supposed to be meeting the convoy?”

Damn. They had been en route to meet a Manna Products convoy. David wanted to set aside hostilities with the rest of the Conglomerate—they’d make powerful and necessary allies against the new Empire. But whatever Raziel wanted was probably urgent.

“Tell them we’ll be late.”

“Yup, yup. Gonna be late for dinner. Got it.”

He glanced back at Rachel, who had already put her uniform back on. He did the same, and they went up to the bridge. Raziel stood there, motionless.

By the time they arrived, the pilot was already jumping out of the Laish Gate.

“We must take my ship down to that moon,” the Angel said, indicating one in the distance.

David looked to Rachel, who nodded. “Knight, you’re with us. Phoebe, you have the bridge.”

They descended to the hangar, then Raziel piloted his own ship toward the moon. It was far out from the Conduit Gate, but his ship was swift.

“What’s down there?” Rachel asked.

“The moon is hollow. It serves as a concealed construction base for prototype projects. Eventually, some of those were sold to the Sentinels.” The Angel steered them toward an opening, one David realized was actually a hangar. A seal opened beneath them, and the ship descended through an airlock.

From the window, David could see a full battleship beneath them. It was black, and shimmered like the Ark, albeit much smaller. The ship was just over a kilometer in length. Its hull pulsed and shifted as Raziel’s ship landed nearby.

“Bugger me,” David said. “Is that another Angel ship?”

The Angel rose and walked toward the hatch. “No. That is the Sephirot. It is the first of a new line of ship QI intended to market to Sentinels a few years from now. It has, however, been modified with an organic self-repairing skin similar to that used on the Ark. Come.” He led them out across the hangar.

As they approached the battleship, its skin shifted. A hatch opened, and a tube extended from the ship. When they stood beneath it, a gravity wave picked them up and carried them like a lift. It tingled, and David twitched a little. He was used to being caught by a grav-net, not hoisted by one.

The net pulled them inside, into an airlock. It buzzed open.

“Is this ship sentient, like the Ark?” Rachel asked.

“No. The crew on the bridge merely saw me and extended the grav-lift.”

Just as well. David had seen what bonding with the Ark’s intelligence had done to Rachel. He had no desire to repeat that.

“Very impressive,” he said. “Is this thing operational?”

“Yes. It’s ready for its maiden voyage, and it will serve as a better staging ground than the Wheel of Law.”

“No shit,” Knight said. “What kind of weapons does it have?”

“Mostly the same as a Tribulation-class warship,” Raziel answered. “We’ve replaced two of the four ion cannons with antiproton cannons. It also features two extra pulse cannons, and ten extra defensive laser batteries. More importantly, its kinetic shields have been greatly enhanced. Combined with the self-repairing skin and extra laser batteries, the defensive capabilities of this ship are significant. You should be able to take down any ship save the Ark itself.”

“Yeah, well, that’s the thing we actually want to take out,” Knight said.

“I do not. I have no desire to see the extinction of my own kind. This ship, however, will aid you in defeating the Ark’s allies.”

Meaning David’s people.

They reached the bridge. The ship featured a skeleton crew of QI employees. He’d need to replace them with Sentinels from the Wheel. Those he could trust the most. Which meant he needed Phoebe. He supposed he’d have to find someone else to give command of the Wheel. Probably Kennison.

He strolled through the bridge, running his hand over the sleek consoles. Everything here spoke of speed and efficiency. Raziel was right—Sentinels would have bought this line. And would have paid almost anything for it. He suspected the organic skin was not part of the original design. Raziel must have had that added when he realized they would have to fight the Ark.

“Aye,” David said. “Aye, I’ll take it.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SIX

March 15th

Sometimes all of us take meals together. Myself, David, Leah, Phoebe, and Knight. We sit and drink and eat, and tell stories about the things we’ve lost. No one speaks of the things we’ve found—no one has to. I see it in the way David looks at me, from the corner of his eye. I see it when Phoebe holds Knight’s hand under the table, when she thinks no one is looking. And I see it in myself—when I rise from bed and put on this uniform, despite the fall of civilization all around us.

The Flame of Heaven had never looked so inviting. After so many weeks aboard the serpentine pirate ship, Caleb suspected any ship would have looked appealing.

“I suppose you’ll be heading back to the Expanse?” he asked Ezra.

“Apollo has asked us to remain in Triangulum. He says he has more work for us soon, so we’re to shadow the Flame.”

And the Asherans were going to allow that? Pirates in the heart of their Confederacy? But then, why not? Apollo seemed to have both factions in his pocket. Along with Jericho Corp.

The Jericho ship sent a shuttle to retrieve Caleb. On the other side, Rebekah was waiting for him.

She tossed her fiery hair about her shoulders and winked at him. “Did you miss me?”

God, it had been too long since he’d had a woman. He felt ready to burst with need, and sick for wanting her. And by the look on her face, she knew it.

“I missed you.”

Rebekah smirked and led him back to his quarters. He needed to call Ayelet. He’d been gone so long, and she’d be worried about him. Besides, he needed to see her face. He couldn’t picture it in his mind. He needed to see James and Miriam. He needed …

As soon as the door was shut, Rebekah tore open her shirt, letting her tight breasts jiggle in front of his face.

Ayelet. Ayelet.

But he couldn’t stop staring at the girl’s pink nipples.

Damn her.

Damn him for wanting her. He deserved all the things Apollo had done to him. He was a lecher and an adulterer and a thief. He’d lied and cheated and stolen his way to the top of a megacorp—because, of course, that was the only way to get to the top. And he’d told himself he was doing it for his family, all the while soaking his own bloated ego on the power and fucking any girl who came along.

Rebekah pulled off his pants and began to fondle him.

He deserved it all. Because he was a sick bastard.

He threw her onto the floor and yanked off her trousers. And he buried himself inside her until he wept from relief and guilt.

The moment he was spent, he rolled off her and fled into the washroom. He slammed the door and locked it. God. What had this girl done to him? Had she become more than any of the others? Any of the endless parade of women he had taken advantage of—had betrayed Ayelet with? He could not … he could not allow himself to fall for Rebekah. Or had he let her fall for him?

When he’d left her here, it had hurt her. But thank God he had left her behind. All those weeks alone on the pirate ship with her, and she might well have convinced him to leave his wife or some other off rotation shit like that.

Leave his wife? Where had that thought even come from? He would never leave Ayelet. Not in a million years.

Outside, Rebekah snorted. “How long are you going to take in there, Caleb?”

He turned on the water and splashed it over his face, as cold as it got. The icy shock helped focus him. Maybe he had led her on? Had turned her into this … harlot. He needed a way to get free of Apollo, and he needed it soon. And maybe the only way that could happen was if he could bring down the Ark and stop the Angels. He could never live in peace—never live at all—as long as they were still out there. Damn Angels and their damn Commandments.

What the void was so wrong with cybernetics, anyway? Angels wanted to be better than humans. They wanted to be the only ones with genetic engineering and cybernetic technology. And they were willing to commit genocide to ensure they were. Well, now he’d give everything to Asherah. Including all his hopes.

He opened the door to find Rebekah sitting on the floor, leaning back on her hands, legs spread. And despite it all, he felt himself start to rise again at the sight.

He shut his eyes and turned away. But the image ran through his mind again and again. Her nubile body, her luscious breasts, and the soft glimpse of heaven between her legs. He tried again and again to conjure Ayelet’s face. Somehow, Rebekah’s body kept intruding.

“What news?” he managed to asked.

Rebekah sighed. “The Asherans have used the cybernetics data we gave them to create super soldiers. They’re calling them the Zuzim. They’re planning a strike against the Ark soon. They think if they can get the Zuzim on board, they might be able to overpower the Angels.”

Overpower the Angels, indeed. Caleb sincerely doubted it. These were beings who had created and mapped the Conduit. They had built a station on the edge of the Great Attractor. Their knowledge and power spanned galaxies far beyond anywhere humans had ever trod.

The attack might be doomed, but he could do nothing to stop it. After all, it was his best hope, as well. He needed them to strike and he needed them to win. Void, everyone needed it. The Angels were wiping out entire planets as if simply to prove they could. They’d killed more people than the Adversary ever had. They had declared war on humanity and Caleb had to do everything in his power to stop them.

In the end, it was the only way he could ever go home to Ayelet.

“You should go,” he said, still looking away.

He felt her slink up behind him. She slipped her hands around his waist and let them explore his abdomen, then drift lower. “You don’t really want that. I’m sure you have a lot of pent-up frustration from your long trip away.”

He shuddered.

God, he couldn’t stop himself.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVEN

March 17th

Last night, I invited Raziel to join us for dinner. To my surprise, he accepted. I didn’t think the Angel even ate. He didn’t seem to need food in all the time he was in the brig. The Angel complimented Leah on her choice of salmon, and the Amphie blushed like God himself had praised her.

The Conduit streamed around him as David steered the Sephirot through bend after bend. There was no time. Word had come from advance scouts that Asherah planned to stage a massive strike on the Ark. If the experience with the Sentinel fleet was anything to judge by, the Angels would oblige. They seemed eager to corral their opponents in one place and make an example of them.

The Triangulum galaxy was over half a million light years from Andromeda, but David was determined to make the journey in record time. The Sephirot handled well, and David was born to fly. In the Conduit, confidence was everything.

Unfortunately, intergalactic space featured fewer Conduit routes—which meant less opportunity to rely on intuition. There were only so many ways to travel between galaxies. Ahead, though, he could feel the maze coming upon him. They were approaching Triangulum. His prescient senses tingled with anticipation of the new routes. He had spent so little time in Asheran space, these paths were fresh—like a new dish savored for the first time.

The holo display on his console showed his intended coordinates, the Moab System. You always had to know where you were going. It was up to the mind of a Psych to navigate, to find the way, but you had to have a destination in mind. There was no memorizing routes, because they unfolded in limitless, seemingly changing ways. A rainbow wall of shimmering possibilities. And without ESP, a maze with no escape.

Time lost meaning in here. He thought it might have been hours, but it was so hard to tell. At last he felt the Moab System coming up. He saw it in his mind, unfolding before him. Two more twists, and he felt the Gate approaching. He pushed the Sephirot through and it jumped back to normal space.

David shook his head, trying to fight past the sudden deadening of his psionic senses. Rachel brought up the system on the main display. For a brief moment, a heartbeat, he thought they had the wrong place. This was no armada, it was an asteroid field.

But those weren’t asteroids. That was debris from ships. And planets.

“How many planets were supposed to be in this system?”

“Seven,” Phoebe said.

David saw only four.

“There,” Rachel said, shifting the screen. “It took me a minute to find them.”

The Ark popped up, tearing through a last Asheran destroyer with a plasma beam.

The entire Asheran fleet was gone. Void, half the planets in this system were gone. The Ark was wounded, that was plain. Atmosphere vented from hull ruptures. But the blasted thing was still flying.

David twisted the Sephirot, setting a course straight for the Ark. Now was their best chance. He had to drive home the attack while they were already weakened.

“What the void are you doing?” Rachel said.

“We were too late to help any of these people. I won’t let their sacrifices be in vain.”

“They already are! An entire fleet couldn’t stop the Ark. You think we can?”

David nodded. He had to. The Angels were flitting about the galaxies, decimating the human population indiscriminately. “This is the most advanced ship in the universe and they’re already damaged. Now’s the time.”

Rachel stepped over to the pilot’s chair and grabbed him. “Mac. It’s the second most advanced ship in the universe. The first is right there, and you’re going after it alone.”

“I’m tired of running! I’m tired of backing down from these Angels. It’s time they bled!” Like they had done to New Rome. Like they had done to Hazaroth. To an entire Sentinel fleet. They had killed his brothers-in-arms, his father, his friends. They slaughtered without thought or mercy, as if some alien virus had swept through the population. They were a disease, weren’t they? These beings he had once worshipped had become a scourge on all mankind.

“I agree. But we’re going to need more forces. They might be wounded, but we still can’t fight them alone.”

“Sir,” Phoebe said. “Rachel is right. Also, the Ark is coming for us. And I’d love to bloody their lips … And noses … And possibly other parts of their anatomy. But I don’t want to die for nothing.”

She was right. The Ark had spotted them and was moving in. He had a few seconds to decide, then they would be in firing range. Would a pair of antiproton cannons be enough? Somehow, he doubted it. Raziel had admitted he didn’t want David to destroy the Ark, only disable it and stop the slaughter. David wasn’t sure that was still an option.

“Bugger me,” he mumbled, and spun the Sephirot around. “I’ll be back for you wankers.”

He dove back into the Conduit. They might try to pursue, but he was confident he could lose them. He twisted around a bend, then doubled back in a loop. Sure enough, the Ark had entered the Conduit behind the Sephirot.

“Guess our ship intrigued them,” Phoebe said. “Because, you know, they’re looking for us. Which is probably bad.”

Maybe. But right now, they were behind the Ark. And it was time to send a message. If they couldn’t stop the Ark, they needed to at least make sure the Angels knew they could hurt it. They needed to make sure they would think twice before assaulting a human fleet.

“Phoebe, prep the antiproton cannons.”

“Er, you want to engage them in the Conduit?”

“Aye, lass. Prep the cannons.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Knight approach Rachel. “What’s wrong with firing in here?”

“People never fire weapons in the Conduit for fear of breaching the walls. The Second Commandment.”

“We’ve cast aside the Angels and their Commandments,” David said. “Open fire.”

He drew the Sephirot up right behind the Ark. Lights dimmed as the antiproton cannons drew enormous swaths of power from the Singularity Drive. The beams traveled at relativistic speeds. There was no evasion. Antimatter explosions rippled along the Ark’s hull. A massive blast tore out a chunk of the aft section, and an Angel was sucked out into space. The poor bugger ricochetted off the Conduit and vanished from David’s view.

The Ark careened wildly, reeling like a beast in pain. It slammed into the Conduit wall, and a seam tore. Blinding light of every imaginable color poured from the rupture. David couldn’t see anything.

He tried to steer the Sephirot away, but tidal forces seized them. His psionic nerves fried and he couldn’t see the Conduit in his mind. His ship crashed into the wall and for a heartbeat of pure terror he felt semi-solid resistance, like jelly. Then the Sephirot popped through and slammed to a stop.

Phoebe had been right. He was a fool.

They had breached the Conduit.

His vision cleared, somewhat, enough to see the display. His scanners must be out of whack, everything was distorted. They were in no system he could see, but a red-tinted space, filled with swirling vortices of dark plasma.

“Wha …” Phoebe said.

God help them. It was another universe, wasn’t it?

Rachel screamed and fell to the deck, clutching her head. She sobbed, weeping uncontrollably.

And then David knew why. Something out there was alive. It was awake. And angry, filled with a hatred spanning eons and consuming entire galaxies.

The Sephirot was wedged into the walls of the Conduit, not wholly punched through. He kicked the thrusters into reverse. The wall resisted his attempts to punch back through. He jerked as hard as he could on the joystick, but the Conduit held fast, like he was trying to fly through elastic. It gave rather than broke.

A purple and black vortex drifted toward them. Lightning coruscated all around it. It was coming for them. Coming to see what pathetic life-forms had invaded its universe. It was going to devour them body and soul. Nothing would be left to escape to heaven.

David’s chest trembled and cold sweat built on his forehead. He had damned them all. He had.

He glanced around. Most of the crew were transfixed, frozen in horror, eyes locked on the approaching nightmare.

They needed him clear. He shut his eyes and jerked the joystick left and right, trying to wiggle the ship free. And then, with a pop, it slipped back into the Conduit. The Sephirot careened backward and bounced off the Conduit wall, tearing the ship’s skin and knocking out kinetic shields. Back and forth it bounced before he was able to reverse the thrusters again.

He tried to steer them away, anywhere. But the ship was out of control. It crashed again into the Conduit wall. His psionic nerves began to cool, and he saw a Gate in his mind. It didn’t matter where it led. They had to escape the Conduit.

He jumped them free.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-EIGHT

It all only serves to remind me how little I truly understand Raziel or the other Angels. The truth is, even I don’t know why they did they things they did.

The door to Caleb’s room opened, and Apollo stepped in. Bastard couldn’t knock?

Caleb rose, not bothering to hide Rebekah lying naked in the bed, nor the fact he wore nothing himself. She rolled over, pulling the blanket up around her, and watched Apollo without a hint of fear. More bravado than he could muster.

Caleb pulled on his pants. “What are you doing here?”

Apollo strode over, never even glancing at Rebekah. Any man who didn’t even notice a beautiful naked woman in bed a meter away … Well, Apollo wasn’t a man, as far as Caleb was concerned.

“It’s time. The Sentinels are divided and can no longer properly patrol their space. You will go with the Sons of Cain into the Milky Way. There is another Angel station there that must be destroyed.”

Another one? The Milky Way was deep in the Mizraim Empire. Even if Apollo was right and the Sentinels couldn’t defend it at the moment, how could a station have gone unnoticed all these years?

“It is hidden in a nebula,” Apollo said.

Answering a question Caleb hadn’t even asked. The Asheran was in his head. The damn chip had destroyed any semblance of privacy he might have.

“In case you haven’t noticed, we lost an entire fleet, too.”

Word had just come that the Zuzim had failed. Spectacularly. The Angels had allowed a single ship to escape the confrontation. Hundreds of Asheran ships were lost. Tens of thousands of lives snuffed out. And for nothing. The Ark was an unstoppable behemoth. It was a juggernaut without remorse or conscience. Like the Angels controlling it.

Apollo nodded. “Yes. Very unfortunate. You are to leave within the hour.”

Son of a bitch didn’t give a flying shit, did he? Caleb sighed. He supposed he should have realized Apollo was a sociopath sooner.

The man cocked his head at that.

Or maybe he was an outright psychopath?

“Prepare to leave,” Apollo said, and departed without further comment.

So they were going to have to take the Serpent into Sentinel space. A damned pirate ship, flying into the heart of Mizraim. Ezra would probably love that almost as much as Caleb did. The man seemed loyal to Apollo, but perhaps it was fear, as well. Caleb would need to find out. He was going to need whatever allies he could get. And sadly, the worst of it was … Apollo might be right. If the man was a heartless prick, the Angels were worse. They were monsters, continuing the extinction of mankind the Adversary had begun thirty-one centuries ago.

Humanity had been given a reprieve.

And now, long delayed, death came for them.

So Caleb would do anything he could to deny the Angels resources. Including destroy their stations. It was terribly depressing to think he had no choice but to rely on Apollo to save the human race from the Angels. His savior was a sociopath. He felt nauseated.

“I’m going with you,” Rebekah said.

He turned to look at her and found she had dressed while he was lost in thought.

“It’s too dangerous.”

“No, Caleb. I’m coming.” She pressed her body against his bare chest and ran her fingers along his face. “It’s a long trek. You’ll be lonely.”

No. No, he’d do this and go home to Ayelet.

“No, Caleb. You know you want me.”

He … He did.

“That’s right. Take me with you. You don’t want to face this alone. Wasn’t it awful, being apart for so long when you went to the Great Attractor … So, so lonely.”

Yeah. That was the truth. She was right. He was weak, and he needed her. Which made him twice the fool, for falling for this teenage girl. She was supposed to be a quick romp to sate his lust. So why couldn’t he be rid of her? She was a good assistant, for certain. The best he’d ever had. It was like she knew his every need before he did. But … he had a wife. He had children …

“Come on. You know this isn’t going to be over yet,” she said. “Let’s go down to the hangar.”

God, she was right. He’d do this for Apollo, and then the bastard would send him off to some other off rotation quest. And as long as Apollo was standing in the way of the Ark, Caleb would keep doing it. It was the only way to save his family and rest of mankind.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINE

March 18th

Never, in all my searching, in all my questing … Never did I consider what might really lurk out there … in the black. That maybe there were things mankind was not ready for.

Man Shall Adhere to the Bounds of the Conduit. Rachel had always found the Second Commandment the most curious of the three. The First seemed clearly designed to maintain Angel superiority over humans. The Third, to increase the human population so the Angels had subjects to rule. But the Second was commonly understood to mean don’t try to violate the causality-maintaining time shifts in the Conduit.

And, some speculated, it meant don’t try to use the Conduit to reach other universes. Now, Rachel knew why.

She pressed her face into her bunk, as if she could hide from the growing darkness echoing through her mind. It rang like a clarion; it hissed like a snake. It was emotion so alien, so foreign, the feel of it slithered inside her like a nest of serpents. It suffocated her thoughts and wrapped around her heart, constricting, denying her breath.

The Sephirot had spun out into a now-desolate system in Triangulum. When they finally got the star charts up and working, they found this system had once been home to an inhabited moon. The Empire had no data on the population or economy here. The Angels had destroyed another world, as if in passing. With the Shekhinah pledging to them, perhaps they had decided it best to systematically wipe out all of Asherah. Maybe the entire Triangulum galaxy

And faced with the horrors the Angels wrought on one hand, and the mind-shattering terror of the foreign universe on the other, she still couldn’t say they were entirely wrong. They had denied humanity Eden … because it was home to psychic ghosts that would drive any population there mad. They had forbid mankind to try to reach other universes. Because there were horrors beyond imagining out there. For three thousand years they had thought they were alone. That humans, Angels, and the Adversary were all there was. But there was other life out there, so different from humans as to defy description.

She had touched a mind so vast it stretched across galaxies. So ancient the whole of human existence was a heartbeat to it. And so full of hatred it had nearly crushed her.

Still, her chest constricted from the thought of it. It would have devoured her soul. She knew that. A second longer in there, and it would have consumed her.

And the Angels were right. Mankind was not ready for what was out there. Could she allow herself to doubt, then, even for a second? Didn’t she have to? She had lectured back at New Rome University. She had told her students it was fine to have faith, but blind faith was foolish. You can never be so sure of your convictions you were unwilling to question them. So what of her convictions, that the Angels were tyrants?

She heard her door open, but couldn’t make herself stand. She kept her face buried, unable to deal with whoever it was. Her empathic senses were fried. Contact with the alien universe had left her mentally and physically broken. Knight had carried her here, and she had slept. And dreamt of a universe of swirling red and black storms. How many other universes were out there? How many horrors lurked beyond the Local Group, in the space Angels had denied mankind? Had they done so to protect humanity? To shield them from dangers they couldn’t even begin to fathom?

Someone sat on her bed and put a hand on her. “Are you all right, lass?”

David. She could always count on David. He was a pillar of strength.

“I’m scared.”

He rubbed her shoulder. “I know. It’s my fault. I never should have engaged them in the Conduit. I let my rage cloud my judgment. I had … no idea.”

No one did. That was the point. How many other things did they not know were out there? It was easy to think that was also the Angels’ fault. Had they been honest about the dangers, instead of simply imposing Commandments … would it have worked? Or was it human nature to question, to push boundaries? Would knowing such things existed have driven people to deliberately try to contact these … beings?

“It’s not your fault. They never told us.”

“Aye, well, maybe they told us enough. Maybe we should have listened. I think I worried them, though. They retreated to Mizraim space. They’ve taken the Tabernacle and declared all Mizraim space returned to their rule. I think … maybe it’s over. The Days of Glory are back.”

The Days of Glory. Maybe they should welcome them back. Maybe mankind should slink back into its blissful ignorance and obedience. She could seek penance and forgiveness for questioning them. And things might go back to how they were. Humans oppressed by Angel theocracy, but safe. Free from the fears she now knew, protected from the greater universe by guardian Angels.

And everything she had ever done would have been for nothing. Or rather, it would be because of her the Angels returned. She’d found the Sefer Raziel. She’d awakened the Angels from the Ark. Raziel had known where they were, but had judged the time not right to awaken them. Why? To avoid this very future. Even he must not want to see the wholesale genocide of Asherah. And that was what she would be condemning them to, if she did nothing.

Rachel rolled over to look up at David. He was smiling sadly, and she wished she could do more to comfort him. “I need to see him.”

“Who?” David asked.

“Raziel.”

Can you hear me?

I hear you, Ms. Jordan. His voice echoed through her mind, making her skull feel too small.

You’re in my head. You can call me by my first name. Can you come here?

No answer was forthcoming, so she had to assume he was on his way.

“Does he know?” she asked.

“Yes. Rach, I … I’m so sorry I put us through—”

“Don’t. You had no way of knowing. You did what you thought was right. And you may have saved a lot of Asheran lives. At least now they’ve paused the genocide.” For a moment.

He held her close and rubbed her back, saying nothing. It was the perfect thing to say.

Her door buzzed.

“Open.”

Raziel stepped in, still wearing his hood up. “What is it, Rachel?”

“You have to do something. You chose not to wake the other Angels, so you must not have wanted this future. So prevent it.”

“I cannot.”

“You can try.”

Raziel sighed and lowered his head. “Very well. I will see what I can learn. I’ll need time.”

“We’ll be stuck here making repairs a wee bit still,” David said.

“Raziel …” Rachel said. “Thank you. For what it’s worth … I wish I had just given you the Ark in the first place.”

“Hindsight makes mistakes glaringly obvious. We understand that better than most. I shall be in my own ship. I must enter the Conduit.” The Angel departed, leaving her alone with David.

She pulled him down to lay beside her, and slept with his arm around her. Maybe his presence soothed the nightmares, or maybe just having another Psych nearby helped clear her mind. Either way, she rested, and when she woke, her own psionic senses seemed to be functioning normally. Even as he slept, she sensed the warmth David felt toward her. The love he’d always had for her. Whatever mistakes she’d made, he was the one person who never turned away from her. For certain, when she acted the fool he’d called her out on it. He’d been right. It wasn’t her place to release Caleb without his permission. Not on his ship.

She kissed him on the cheek. David’s stubble had grown thick over the last couple days, and his whiskers tickled her lips. He needed a shave. He needed a damn vacation. They all did.

He woke, and ordered breakfast brought to her quarters. They sat quietly, eating eggs and oatmeal. It had never tasted so good to her. She hadn’t eaten since … Since before they entered Triangulum, more than a day ago. David didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to.

“When are you needed on the bridge?” she asked, when breakfast was finished.

“Soon, I guess. I’ve left Phoebe up there all night. She’s bound to be getting a wee bit cranky. Which is like to be more a problem for Knight than me, I guess … Why? Did you have something in mind?”

“Well, I just might …”

David rose from the table and leaned toward her. His thumb brushed her cheek, and he ran his fingers through her hair.

Her door buzzed.

Bastard had the worst timing in the holy universe. And she almost, almost might believe he’d done it on purpose.

She exchanged a pained looked with David, then he shrugged and backed away.

“Open,” she said.

Raziel stepped in, and Rachel swore she sensed a hint of amusement coming off him. Damn Angel really did know what he’d interrupted, didn’t he?

“I have communed with my brethren.”

Communed? Did he mean he called them on the Mazzaroth? Or had he gone into the Conduit to enhance his psionic gifts? God, did that really allow him to communicate telepathically between galaxies?

“The Angels have refused to back down. They warned me … They said I must join them in the destruction of Asherah. They intend to strike soon and eliminate all human life in the Confederacy as an example. Mizraim citizens who submit will be spared.”

All life? So they were really going through with the genocide. They planned to wipe out seven galaxies’ worth of human life.

And what did he mean, they said he must join them? Would he? Would he become a pariah and stand against them, risk his own existence? His face was unreadable, his emotions guarded.

The Angel turned away, hiding his face. “I’m sorry, Rachel. They will not be swayed. They cannot forgive the Asherans for making themselves cyborgs. They plan to reinforce the Covenant.”

At the cost of a trillion lives.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY

Raziel’s brethren refused him. They had warned him to come back to them. Did it tempt him? Might he still betray her? And if he did, could she truly blame him?

For a long time after Raziel left, David sat with Rachel in her chambers. She said nothing, and he was grateful. He had put her—had put all the crew—through the void in trying to take down the Ark, and he’d failed.

Now, the Tabernacle belonged to the Angels. Sentinel ships were flocking back to the Shekhinah. Mizraim would be solidly under their control in a few weeks, most likely. And then … then they would exterminate the seven galaxies of the Asheran Confederacy.

And no matter how much he’d hated Asherah for the death of his mum, he could not allow that. Murder on this scale was something beyond imagining. Or rather, it was something they had only imagined from the Adversary itself. The entity or entities had tried to exterminate mankind. And that was what the Angels were doing now.

They had made themselves the very monster they had once saved Eden from. They had saved Eden after seven billion people died. But the numbers they intended to kill now dwarfed even the Adversary’s unthinkable actions.

The Sentinels had been created to protect humanity. To ensure no foe could ever threaten their survival again. To stand between mankind and the Adversary. And that was what David would have to do now. He would have to stand up to the Angels. He would stand against Mizraim, if that’s what it took.

At last he stood, and Rachel rose with him. She must know the decision he’d already reached. She’d feel it, radiating from his emotions. She knew him. Something things could not be borne.

“The Asheran military is in chaos,” she said. “They’ve lost even more ships than the Sentinels.”

“Hertz reported one Aluf is still trying to organize a defense. He needs to know what’s coming.”

Rachel nodded.

David brushed off his uniform and stood before the Mazzaroth screen. Some might call what he was about to do treason. But then, he’d been accused of that before. Once he’d started down the road of following his convictions, there was no turning back.

“Mazzaroth personal access. David McGregor, code Duress 92G. Contact Aluf Mishma Lamport.”

For an interminable minute, the screen flickered, trying to connect. Then, at long last, the man appeared on screen. The man wore a helmet disguising his face. In place of a visor, it showed a cross of glowing light. He had an armored suit, but it didn’t cover his arms. Those were actually made of metal. Cybernetic limbs.

It made David a little sick, but he tried not to squirm. He’d chosen to make this call. “Aluf?”

“Yes.”

“I’m Sentinel Captain David McGregor.”

“What do you want, Captain?”

“I … I want to warn you. The Angels have claimed the Tabernacle and taken control of the Mizraim Empire. Many Sentinels are with them. They plan to invade Asheran space soon. They intend to use the Ark to wipe out every living being in the Confederacy.”

The Aluf held stock still, and through the visor, David could get no read on the man. Did he trust him? If the man refused to believe, this call was for nothing.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because not all Sentinels, not all Mizraim citizens, believe in such extreme measures. Because the Angels have become mass murderers—the very threat Sentinels are meant to stand against.”

A loud breath transmitted over the Mazzaroth. It was probably a snort, but David decided it was best to assume it was a sigh.

“So you plan to aid Asherah, Captain?”

Just one more step. One more step down the road to treason. One meter more, and he would betray his government to the enemy he’d hated from childhood. He would betray his government to save the human race. The very thing Rachel had been trying to do all along. And now he had become her. He had found himself in her role. The Codex spoke of pariahs—those who stood outcast, not as mere khapiru, but for the good of society. Would doing this make him one? Would it end his career? It didn’t matter. It was petty to dwell on such things now. His career meant nothing in the face of the fate of the human race. Just like Rachel—at long last he understood her. For her convictions, she had sacrificed all she’d worked for. And he had never truly understood until this moment.

Before, he had made sacrifices for her. He had betrayed Waller because of love for Rachel. Only now, standing here, on the cusp of alliance with the enemies of his own nation, did he really understand the weight she had borne. The terrible burden of a conscience that defied society.

“Aye,” he said, at last. “We have to act quickly. And we’ll need to work together. Can I count on you, Aluf?”

The man slowly reached up and detached his helmet. A hiss of oxygen escaped as he lifted it away, at last revealing his face. Cybernetic protrusions that reminded David of the frozen Angels poked out in place of one of the man’s eyebrows. His face was worn, scarred, and older than David had guessed.

“I am a man of my word, Captain. And I give you that word. If you are true, I shall be as well.”

David supposed it was the best he could hope for.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-ONE

March 20th

I asked the Angel, this morning, whether he hated his own kind for their actions. ‘Do you hate your species for wrongs it has done?’ he asked me back. I suppose his decision to be here is as difficult as any of ours. We betray our gods, and he betrays his own kind.

The men and women sitting around the table had become David’s inner circle. Rachel, the love of his life, sat on his right, manipulating a holo display of Andromeda.

“This is where we think the Tabernacle is located,” she said.

Knight sat beside her, taciturn and solemn, casting barely perceptible glances at Phoebe across the table. And, of course, Leah was there, next to Phoebe. He’d had less time to give the Amphie of late, and he hoped she understood. Her friendship meant more to him than he could tell her.

Raziel stood at the other end of the table, finding no chairs easily accommodated his wings. Sooner or later, David would have to make special arrangements for the Angel. Despite all odds, Raziel had proven an ally, and deserved to be treated as such.

“The Tabernacle is a very important symbol to Mizraim,” Leah said. “If we could take it back, it would send a message.”

“Yup, yup,” Phoebe said. “It’d tell everyone we’re badasses. On account of it’s liable to be guarded by a sizable fleet and possibly Angels. And basically impossible to take. So, we’d be doing the impossible. Always looks good. You know, if it wasn’t impossible.”

“Nothing’s impossible,” Knight said.

“In that case, how about I knock you up, and you have the babies, ninja boy?”

David smiled, trying to savor the moment. The people he cared most for were all here in this room. It was near impossible to make peace. Their lives were in his hands. His next decisions could cost any or all of them those lives. He’d always borne the burden for the lives of those under his command, and he’d always accepted that. But this was different. Captains were usually discouraged, although not forbidden, from having romances in their own crew. He could see why. He’d never let anything happen to Rachel. He never wanted anything to happen to anyone here.

“Leah is right about the Tabernacle,” he said at last. “The symbol aside, we cannot allow the Angels to continue to use the Shekhinah.”

Rachel waved away the hologram. “Why not? What does that computer have to do with anything now that the Angels themselves are back? I mean, it ruled Mizraim, so people followed it, but it’s been supplanted.”

He sighed, and Phoebe cleared her throat. When he’d promoted her to first officer, he’d had to tell her something she hadn’t been thrilled to hear. Usually only Captains and XOs were meant to know, but the time for military secrets may have passed.

He scratched his head, then turned to Rachel. “The Shekhinah was the ultimate commander of the Sentinels, the final authority over us.”

“And?”

“And every Sentinel ship in the fleet is equipped with a secure transmitter beacon. Through Conduit Relays, the Shekhinah can monitor the location and condition of a ship, no matter where in the universe it is. If we tried to congregate a fleet, it would know where we were staging. It’ll make organizing the Sentinels against the Angels next to impossible.”

“So we destroy it,” Knight said.

“What, the beacon?” David asked. “It’s not a single device, but a fully integrated part of the ship. Disabling it would mean frying the main computer and half the systems onboard. We’d be left blind and adrift.”

“Then take out the Shekhinah,” Knight said. “Remove it from the equation.”

Leah scoffed. “The Shekhinah has stood as the symbol of Mizraim for six hundred years, Knight. We can’t just blow it up.”

“Why not? I have nothing personal against it. The only order it ever gave me was to have lots of sex. Which works. But it’s a computer, and it’s in the way of our plans.”

“Technically,” Phoebe said, “it ordered you to have sex with lots of women. Not the same as just have lots of sex with one woman. Which means, I kinda do have a personal problem with the computer.”

David held up a hand. “Look, what Knight says is true. Not long ago I couldn’t have even imagined doing this, but … we have no choice. The Shekhinah, whether out of fear or cold logic, has sided with the Angels. And it gives them a tool we cannot allow them to have. It has betrayed mankind, and our only remaining option is to take it out.”

“Yup. M’kay. But how are we going to do that if we can’t get close without it knowing?”

“The Sephirot was never fitted with the beacon,” Raziel said. “Nor, obviously, were any other QI ships.”

David swallowed. This was it, then. This was the moment he crossed the line and could not even pretend an illusion of loyalty. “Nor are the Asheran ships. I’ve been in contact with them. We can give them the coordinates and they can strike with us.”

Leah moaned. “David, you know what it’s going to mean if an Asheran fleet destroys the symbol of the Mizraim Empire.”

Chaos. Rampant fear. Maybe civil war. “It’ll mean a terror slightly less than what the Angels are raining down on the universe right now. It’ll mean we deal a blow to them, and to their authority. And with any luck, it’ll mean we earn back the Sentinels to our cause. Because we cannot fight both the Angels and the Sentinels.”

He looked around the table. One by one, each of his companions nodded.

So it was decided.

God forgive him for what he had to do.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-TWO

The Angels are calling it the Empire of Returned Glory. But there was no glory. There was apocalypse. I suppose that’s what Raziel sees. The things he spent six hundred years building are ablaze. And, at this rate, humanity will be back where it was three thousand years ago. Reeling from a brush with extinction.

Rachel felt chilled, despite the heat of the war room. She rose from the table, hugging herself. The day she had left home, her father had told her defiance would have severe consequences. He had been right. If she had stayed there, or even had acquiesced when the board at NRU told her to curtail her lectures, maybe none of this would have happened.

In her quest to save the human race, she had brought about Armageddon. She guessed one person really could make a difference in the universe. And she wanted to cry, though she dared not let any of the others see her.

One by one, they filed out of the war room. Except David. He just sat there, watching her.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“Aye, lass. Stay a wee bit, please.”

Rachel slumped back into the chair beside him and took his hand. He felt the weight, too. It drifted off him like toxic vapors, threatening to suffocate her. The weight of destiny, the weight of choices that could not be unmade. Decisions he made, even now, knowing the cost would be high—maybe higher than could be borne. And he made them anyway, because he saw no other way.

And buried under all that, he felt something else. A surge of comfort when she held his hand. He deserved whatever small comfort she could give him. He’d sacrificed so much for her. She’d brought this about, and still he stood by her.

“You know, lass, I realized something. It took me a long time, but I finally understood why you did all the things you did. Before, I thought I knew, but I didn’t. You didn’t give up your home and career because you don’t care about those things … You did it because you had no choice. That little voice in your head that just wouldn’t be silent. Your conscience, telling you something was wrong with the universe. And if no one else saw it, you had to be the one to fix it.”

What was he saying? That he … Could this …

Her mind wouldn’t work right. Her chest seized up, overcome with a torrent of emotions. And for once, she didn’t have to wonder whether they had come from someone else. A tear streamed down her face.

“You don’t know …” she stammered, knowing she sounded like a blubbering child, but unable to stop. “You don’t know how long I waited to hear … to have you …”

“Aye. I do. Now.” He threw his arms around her and held her close.

And for a moment, all that fear and pressure fled. Finally … finally he was with her. He had been by her side all along, but he hadn’t understood her. And she’d known that and loved him anyway. But now … She couldn’t cope with the unleashed river of emotion, and so here she was sobbing like an idiot.

David brushed her cheek, rubbing away a tear with his thumb. She kissed him then, hard, pressing her lips on his with a hunger that threatened to consume her. For a lifetime she had waited to know she wasn’t in this alone.

He pulled away and looked deep into her eyes. “Rach … We could all die soon. And I’m so sorry I have to place you in such danger.”

“It’s all right. I understand.” She laughed, sucking away the last of her tears. “I get … the weight.”

“Aye. And I can’t go into that without you knowing the depth of my heart.”

She smiled, and punched him on the arm. “Don’t worry. I’m an empath.”

“No. Sometimes you need to hear the words, lass. I love you.” He dropped from his chair onto one knee. “And I want you to be my wife. And I know not everyone believes in this kind of thing, but I do. I want you and only you, forever. I want to finish this and build a life and a house and have babies. Lots of babies. And you know I’ve wanted it all before … But it’s more now. I’m ready to burst for the want of it. Be mine and mine alone, lass.”

Her breath caught and she stammered, further cementing her performance in the halls of idiocy. Of course, David had always wanted kids with her. And she had wanted it, too … A part of her. She’d raged and railed against the injustice of the Third Commandment. Against the sickening thought of being told she was obligated to have children, of being ordered what to do with her own body. And in that rage, she had feared she refused to do what her own heart wanted, out of pure ornery defiance.

But the Angels had made the Second Commandment to protect people. Just as they had made the Third. They told humans to populate the universe, because it ensured the survival of the human race. And because they were poor rulers, arrogant and self-righteous, they made Commandments. Rather than discuss, they chose to demand. And she, in her own arrogance, had refused on principle. A stubborn child, holding her breath as if to punish her parents.

For years she had drawn David close and pushed him away. She’d loved him, he’d loved her, and still she’d refused. Because she hadn’t been ready. She’d never understood what was wrong with her … Except, maybe she was waiting for him to understand. And he finally did.

“Rachel?”

She nodded, slowly, unable to get her mouth to work. “Y-yes,” she managed, at last.

“Yes?” His face broke into a nervous grin. “As in …”

Rachel chuckled. “As in aye, laddie, I’ll marry you. Soon as we can get a state official to draw up the papers.”

David grabbed her, lifted her in his arms, and spun her around, shouting.

And she laughed.

He was right. They might die tomorrow. But she felt freer than she had in a long time.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-THREE

March 24th

I’m getting married soon. Assuming I don’t die a horrible death tomorrow, of course. I’m getting married! Kind of hard to wrap my mind around it.

The Sephirot jumped into the Hazaroth System. David considered it poetic justice to stage an assault on the Tabernacle in the very location the Angels had destroyed the Sentinel training world. And so, he had ordered a small Asheran fleet to form up here.

The moment he entered, though, he spotted Sentinel cruisers drawing in on the Aab-e Hayat, Aluf Mishma Lamport’s ship, and the others.

David watched the advance of cruisers, unable to bring himself to intervene. He’d known waging this war on the Angels would mean fighting his former brothers-in-arms, those who served them. But how could he take them on in favor of Asherah? These were Mizraim citizens … They were Sentinels.

“You don’t have a choice,” Knight said.

David jerked from his stupor to look at the Gehennan. The man had crept up close enough to whisper in his ear and David hadn’t even noticed. He hated that Knight could do that. Not that having the bugger read him had him doing a jig of joy either.

“You gave your word to the Asherans. If you want them to aid us …”

“I bloody know that, Knight. It’s not so simple.”

“Kill a few to save the many.”

“Some of those few are my friends.”

The Gehennan leaned even closer. “Not right now they aren’t. Push it down and get this done. Remember where you are.”

Hazaroth. A world destroyed by the Angels. The monsters his former allies now served. They knew who their masters were and what they had done. And Knight spoke the truth … The Sentinels had left David no choice.

He dove in toward the attacking cruisers.

“Pulse cannons,” he said. “Wide barrage. Wear out their shields. Then concentrate MAG fire.”

He strafed between a pair of cruisers. The Sephirot’s cannons flared, flinging plasma pulses so quickly it almost seemed like a continuous stream. Explosions ruptured the Sentinel ships’ hulls. Then the MAGs ripped through the weakened inner bellies, popping out the far side. Thousands of tiny breaches all over the cruisers led to rapid decompression, and the Sephirot broke away even as the Singularity Drives imploded.

No one would have escaped.

“Mac,” Rachel said. “The Aab-e Hayat is hailing.”

David waved the holo display on, and Lamport appeared, once again wearing his helmet. “Thank you for the assist, Captain.”

“Aye.”

“You have located the Tabernacle?”

“Aye. They’ve moved it into the Achshap System. Nothing there except a Sentinel research station.”

“Good. Then you are ready to strike?”

“Soon.”

Hertz and the other captains loyal to David had agreed to stage up in the Milky Way. The Shekhinah would detect the cluster of ships, and with luck, the Ark would be drawn off to engage them. When the Ark showed, he’d told her to run like the Adversary itself was at her bloody heels. All she had to do was keep it busy.

And still, it was best not to invest too heavily in one strategy. “I need your ships to prepare a strike on three different Sentinel defense stations. I’ll be sending you coordinates.”

“I thought we were going after the Tabernacle?”

Leah had been right. If an Asheran fleet destroyed the Tabernacle, it would symbolize the end of Mizraim. It could mean civil war. He couldn’t allow that. Which meant the best use for the Asherans was to draw as much attention as possible.

“Aye. The Sephirot and the QI fleet will be. We just need you to clear the way by stirring up as much trouble as possible. And Aluf—avoid civilian targets whenever possible.”

The man crossed his arms. “I am a soldier, not a murderer.”

David suppressed a snicker. All his life, that’s exactly what he’d thought Asherans were—murderers. And now, having met one, the man was different than he’d expected. Not bloodthirsty. Not … a monster. Just a man, fighting for his nation. He was a cyborg, and the thought made David’s skin crawl … but maybe that was only because so many generations had conditioned that response into him.

“Good hunting, Aluf,” David said.

The Asheran nodded. “Make this worthwhile, Captain.”

David was sure as the holy universe going to try. He transmitted the coordinates of the Sentinel stations he’d selected. He’d tried to choose those with small crews. Minimize the loss of life, while hopefully drawing as many of the Angel forces off as possible.

The channel cut off, and the Asheran fleet entered the Conduit. A couple of hours, and they would move in on Achshap.

He tapped the PA on his console to address the ship. “This is Captain McGregor. Very soon we will strike at the heart of the Mizraim Empire. We plan to destroy the symbol of the nation we have served and protected all our lives.” He swallowed, his throat dry. However difficult it was for him, the crew would feel the same. They would question this treason, deep in their hearts. And their doubts would slow their reactions, jeopardize their lives and the mission.

“I know how difficult this is for all of us. We want to believe in the Shekhinah. It was our leader. But the Shekhinah has fallen, been coerced by enemies who would enslave mankind. Angels might once have been our saviors, but that time has passed. They have become something else … Something we cannot abide.” He looked to Rachel, who nodded at him. “And when you cannot abide something, you must do all in your power to change it. And that means showing the Angels the time for us to kneel has passed. Now we stand.”

He released the PA.

At this very moment, Hannah Hertz and other ships loyal to him were likely running for their lives. Some of them would fall for this. It could not be helped. The Ark was a monstrosity he would one day have to face. Before he could do that, they needed to take the Shekhinah out of the equation.

And so he waited.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FOUR

I know I need to focus. I have to live out the day before I can celebrate, and that is anything but certain. Today we shape the future.

The Sephirot led a fleet of over a hundred QI ships. Most were destroyers, well-suited for light support. And poorly suited to take on the three Sentinel battleships leading the opposing fleet. The Tabernacle waited beyond the Sentinel armada, and David was determined to get through to it.

More and more QI ships poured out of the Conduit Gate. They didn’t have much time. The Sentinels would have already signaled for help, and their reinforcements could arrive any minute.

And between him and the Tabernacle stood the Logos. A ship filled with officers who had served under him. Friends he cared about, like Mahlah Blaise and a hundred others.

“Hail them,” he told Rachel. The signal beeped, but Waller refused his call.

David shut his eyes. In his mind, he saw the faces of all the men and women on the Logos. People who had looked up to him. People he had taken his meals with, laughed with … celebrated the birth of children with.

“Incoming missiles!” Phoebe said.

David’s eyes jerked open and he yanked the joystick to carry the Sephirot out of range. Laser batteries cut missiles from the sky, and not a single one found purchase on the hull. Some of the QI ships were not as fortunate. A hull breach left a destroyer adrift, spinning out of control.

“Signal the fleet. Tell them to spread out and make for the Tabernacle. Engage all Sentinel ships.”

He dove amongst his own fleet. Waller might think him hiding behind his destroyers. Let him think it. Let him think David would run. But the time for fleeing had passed. He would grieve for his brethren on the Logos. He would grieve, because they were already dead.

He weaved a complex pattern among the ships, an intricate dance that would ensure any attempt to lock onto the Sephirot was in vain, especially given its scanner-deflecting skin. The ship handled like a dream. And for his enemies … a nightmare.

“Wide barrage of missiles, all tubes,” he said. “Target all ships. Launch drones.”

The Sephirot pulsed as two hundred missile tubes launched a volley of antimatter warheads. Massive explosions rippled all around them, further blocking any attempt the Logos might make to track them. They’d be all but invisible.

A ghost in the darkness, as Knight would say. A banshee heralding death.

“Prep the antiproton cannons.”

The cannons needed full weapons’ power, so he couldn’t use the ion canons or pulse cannons at the same time. The MAGs would still fire, though, and he directed continuous fire into the hulls of weakened Sentinel destroyers.

Laser defense batteries sliced into the Sephirot’s hull as he dove past a Sentinel cruiser. Close enough they’d been spotted. His console displayed multiple breaches on the ship’s upper hull. It seemed the organic skin wasn’t impervious.

But David ignored the cruisers. Waller was on the Logos. The Sentinel fleet would be under his command. And there was no reasoning with the fanatic. His only chance was to destroy it.

“Cannons ready,” Phoebe said.

David pulled hard on the joystick, sending the Sephirot screeching upward, out of the chaos and cloud of explosions, right beneath the Logos.

“Fire.”

Lights dimmed as streams of antiprotons erupted from the pair of cannons. The effect was instant. The Logos had no way of knowing, no way of evading. Antimatter explosions cascaded along its hull. Kinetic shields winked out and the ship went up in a blinding flash.

David spun hard, banking away even as the Logos imploded, sucked into its own singularity.

“Get power levels back up! Target the next battleship with ion cannons.”

Waller was dead. Mahlah was dead. His whole former crew gone. He had slaughtered them … and it still wasn’t done. He was going to end this. Whatever it took, the universe could not afford for this war to rage on and on. They needed this to be over. David needed this to be over.

“Sir,” Phoebe said. “The other battleship has locked—”

An ion stream slammed into the Sephirot. David jerked the ship away, diving behind a Sentinel cruiser. The beam cut off, but not before thermonuclear explosions knocked out his lower shields. His console displayed a massive breach in the lower decks.

He had to be faster. He had to end this faster.

Most of the QI fleet was engaged with the Sentinels, but some had pressed on to the Tabernacle.

“Open a channel to those ships!” David said. They couldn’t take the station alone.

Before he could even warn them, a veritable wall of missiles swarmed in. The QI laser batteries cut away some, but others found purchase. QI ships vanished from his screen in an instant.

Bloody shite. He dove back around. “Do we have ion cannons?”

“Yup.” Phoebe opened fire on the last remaining Sentinel battleship, returning the favor.

David sent drones in, pounding the distracted warship with MAG rounds. A heartbeat later the ship exploded.

“Rach, fleet-wide broadcast. This is Captain McGregor. All ships, take out the Sentinel fleet before engaging the Tabernacle. Repeat, do not leave threats behind us.”

Dozens of Sentinel destroyers remained, and a pair of cruisers. More of his brethren. More of the fallen for whom he must soon grieve.

“Pulse cannons, target cruisers. Leave the destroyers to the QI fleet.”

David glanced at his console. Some of the hull breaches on the Sephirot had already sealed. The self-repairing skin was a godsend. It might not be able to close up the massive damage to the underbelly, but it would save lives. And get them back in the action that much more quickly.

He pulled around, drawing a bead on the cruisers.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE

For good or ill, history will remember our actions. It will judge us all, as I have long known it would judge me. In another three thousand years, maybe my descendants will look back on this day as the death of an empire. Or maybe we will fail, and no one will be left to remember us at all.

Rachel’s scanners were filled with so many ships she could barely keep track of them all. Dozens of micro singularities dotted the system. The way David weaved around them was breathtaking. He was … divine.

More ships began popping up on her holo display, emerging from the Conduit. Five, ten … fifty or more.

“Mac! Sentinel reinforcements are here.”

“What? Already? Bloody, bloody void and arse bubbles!”

He was getting overwhelmed, she could feel it. They’d all thought they’d have more time. But the new ships would close in less than a minute. There was no time.

“You must do it,” Raziel said.

“What?” she turned, then realized he had been talking to Knight.

“Use your gifts, Nephilim. Go there and finish this. Take my ship.”

“I … I’m not sure I can fly under these conditions. I’m not an expert pilot.”

God, Raziel was right. The QI fleet might distract the Tabernacle, but with the emergence of Sentinel reinforcements, even the Sephirot wouldn’t be able to focus enough fire on the station to destroy it. Not from the outside.

“I am,” she said. She waved for an ensign to come take her place on scanners.

“Rach,” David said. “What the void are you doing?”

“A bomb from inside the station could destroy the Singularity Drive. It would start a chain reaction. We’d bring down the whole Tabernacle.”

“It’s too dangerous,” David said.

She rushed to his side. “This whole mission is dangerous. How many people have already died? How many more still will? We have one shot at this, Mac. And Knight can do this. But he needs a pilot to evade all those missiles and singularities and drones. The ship’s cloak won’t help if a stray weapon crashes into it.”

“Then it should be me. I’m the best pilot on this ship.”

Rachel kissed his forehead. “You’re the captain. You know you can’t do that. I’m the only one who can. You have to let us go.”

Phoebe shoved her lightly. “Don’t think you’re going on a date with my boyfriend without me.”

For a second, David looked into Rachel’s eyes, and she felt the depth of his love. And his fear for her.

“God be with you, lass.”

She nodded, then noticed Raziel had taken Phoebe’s place at weapons. She supposed he would know better than any how to operate a ship he’d designed.

“Make sure we have a ship to come back to, Angel,” she shouted at him.

Raziel nodded.

And Rachel ran for the lift. Knight and Phoebe entered right beside her.

“Hangar,” she said. The lift whirred.

Knight shifted his weight around, stretching. “You’re placing a lot of confidence in me.”

Rachel patted his arm. “We have confidence in you.”

“Yup, yup. And, by the way, hands off, Rachy.”

Rachel snickered. “A little possessive, aren’t you?”

“If the Shekhinah ordered David to breed with as many women as possible …”

“Point taken.”

“I still wish I had a kyoketsu,” Knight said, obviously eager to change the subject.

The lift arrived, and they ran to Galizur’s ship. The hatch popped as if it knew they were coming. Telepathic command from Raziel? Rachel hopped into the pilot’s seat and strapped in.

“Actually,” Phoebe said when she sat in the co-pilot’s seat, “I spoke to Raziel about that. QI was able to whip one up for you. I was going to surprise you.”

From the corner of her eye, Rachel saw Phoebe giving Knight a package. She couldn’t see him clearly, but she felt him beaming. His excitement radiated through the ship as Rachel launched from the hangar.

“You know a pulse pistol’s a way better weapon, right?” Phoebe said.

“Whatever.”

“Correct. Better in whatever way you could imagine.”

Rachel kept her focus on the Tabernacle. Its scanners might not be able to pick up the ship, but it was launching a barrage of missiles at the QI fleet. And this thing didn’t seem to have laser batteries. Figured. If she used them it would reveal their position. So instead she swerved, trying to give as much berth as she could to the missiles.

It had been a long time since flight school. Maybe too long. Maybe she should have let David do this. Except … the captain needed to stay with his ship. The crew needed him more than she did right now.

Scanners indicated a danger area to port, and she jerked away from it. Singularity from a collapsing ship. Damn things were invisible.

An ion stream passed directly over the ship and Rachel reflexively ducked in her seat.

Right. As if that would do any good.

“So how are we going to get inside?” Knight asked.

Actually, she hadn’t thought that far ahead. Which was definitely not what Knight needed to hear right now.

“I’ll blow through an airlock,” she said.

“That one,” Phoebe said, pointing to a residential docking port.

“Hundreds of people could die if I blow that.”

“True, but they’re going to die anyway when we blow up the station. And this will put us in a straight line for the Drive. Plus, it’ll make lots of chaos. Knight likes chaos.”

So now she was going to kill more people. God forgive her.

She drew the ship up as close as she could, evading more missile fire and drones. As she approached the airlock, her console flashed: ‘Override Airlock?’

What the … ? His ship could do that? That explained how Raziel was always sneaking about. She tapped ‘accept.’ For a second, a whirring sounded from outside the ship, then the airlock opened, allowing her to guide the ship inside to the landing bay.

“Most boring explosion ever,” Phoebe said.

“Don’t worry,” Knight said. “The next one will be bigger.”

Rachel blew out a long breath. Then she popped the hatch.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SIX

I cannot allow myself to doubt. If I do, if I doubt myself or my companions, we will falter.

Knight rushed from the ship down the hall, pulse pistol in hand. Seconds later, Sentinels in full suits charged around the corner, pulse rifles leveled at him. Knight dove into a roll and came up firing. Pulses crashed over his head. His own caught a Sentinel in the chest.

A pulse surged at him and he twisted, allowing it to fly past. Everyone moved in slow motion. He leapt among the Sentinels and slammed his elbow into one’s chest, then caught another’s wrist and flipped the man vertically.

Phoebe shot the last and scurried over to his side. “Uh, huh. All this whining about your mono whip, and look who’s using a gun.”

Knight ignored her and ran on, out onto the platform. A long bridge led forward toward the central sphere. The path was maybe five meters wide, and to either side, a low rail was all that separated them from a drop of a hundred meters or more.

On the far side, Sentinels began forming up, setting up a firing line. An impossible charge.

Knight leapt onto a rail, holstered his gun, and swung down to get a look beneath the bridge. A lattice of buttresses supported the underside and gave a crawlspace for maintenance. Perfect.

“Stay here and cover me!” he shouted at Phoebe and Rachel.

He pushed backward and swung down, snagging the scaffolding. Then he leapt and swung from one buttress to the next, covering ground rapidly. Like he was flying. He ran along a rail, kicked off to the next buttress, and swung around it to opposite side.

From there he jumped, grabbing the outer rail, and flung himself upward. He flipped back to the upper side of the bridge and yanked free his new kyoketsu in midair. Sentinels gaped at him, trying to draw a bead as he landed among them. Even before he hit the ground he whipped the kyoketsu down, carving through a man’s helmet and skull. A twist of his wrist brought the whip-knife back around. He bent backward, avoiding incoming fire, while flinging his weapon around in an arc that severed two limbs.

Knight caught a man’s arm, jerked him forward, then shoved him back, sending the poor bastard stumbling over the rail. The Sentinels gave up shooting him while he was in their midst and engaged him in melee. Even better.

They were good. Masters.

But he knew their arts now, and he was faster. Faster and stronger than any human could ever be. His heart beat so quickly his blood screamed in rivers through his head. A fist caught his side, but with his adrenaline up, he barely noticed the blow. He broke arms and necks, kicked out knees, and flung Sentinels into each other. A low hook brought down a woman and Knight spun, reversing his momentum to jerk his elbow up into another man’s head.

His helmet took the blow, but he stumbled back. Knight arced his kyoketsu, decapitating the stumbling Sentinel. He kicked a fallen pulse rifle up into his hand and shot the last standing foe.

“Come on!” he shouted down the bridge.

“Knight!” Rachel cried.

He turned then. Something was wrong.

Rachel knelt on the ground beside Phoebe. And Knight ran. He saw nothing else. He felt nothing else, until, in an instant, he was beside the girls.

A pulse blast had scorched Phoebe’s suit and punctured it. Blood pooled from the seared, pale flesh beneath.

“Hey! Phoebe!” He grabbed her, forcing her head to look at him. “Come on. You can’t … This is not going to happen. Hey!” He tapped her keypad to retract her helmet.

Phoebe was … She was invincible. She couldn’t … He wouldn’t let her … go. He had lost Shirin like this, a lifetime ago. He was another person, back then. And part of who he’d become now was because of this girl. And she was … His chest seized up and he couldn’t get a breath in.

“Phoebe …”

Rachel pushed him aside, then injected nanobot regenerators into her. “She’ll be okay, Knight. We’ll get her back to Leah and she’ll be fine.”

Phoebe’s eyes fluttered open, and she flashed a weak grin at him. “Come on … ninja boy. How about finishing this shit up so we can go home? I … I’d like a drink.”

He tried to push it down. He tried to tell himself fear and pain and loss were in the mind. Mind over matter. But with her bleeding there … He cradled her in his arms and held her to his chest. All his life he’d had nothing. Nothing. And now he had something he could no longer live without. And she was bleeding out.

“Rachel …” Phoebe said. “Get him to finish it.”

“I’m not leaving you,” he said. There was no way he would leave her out here like this. Not her. She had come for him on Gadara. She had been his light to draw him through the darkness. And for the first time in his whole existence, he was more than a ghost in that darkness. He was part of something. And he …

Rachel grabbed him and spun his face to hers. “I know what you’re feeling. You know I do. But listen to me, Knight. She’s going to be fine. If you pull through and get me to the Drive. The regenerators are already doing their work. Knight, please.”

She was right. He was letting his emotions rule him. There was a time for that, maybe. But this was fear. And he knew how to block it. He shut his eyes and breathed deeply. Two, three heartbeats.

He opened his eyes and pressed a pulse pistol into Phoebe’s hands. “Can you make it back to the ship on your own?”

“Yup, yup … Just give the regenerators a second … I’ll … just go, big guy. Go steal all the glory. Again.”

He stood and turned back to the central sphere. “Stay behind me until I’ve cleared out any remaining guards,” he told Rachel. He wasn’t about to let her get hurt too.

Everyone had trusted him to do this. They had believed in him. They needed him.

He would not fail them.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SEVEN

And we cannot fail. I will not allow all of this to have been for nothing.

Rachel chased after Knight, occasionally firing a shot at the Sentinels beyond him. He tore through them with a rage and efficiency that still frightened her. He slammed a man’s head against the wall and shot another. He didn’t restrict his attacks to Sentinels in uniform. Anyone in the way went down before him.

Like any ship or station, the Tabernacle’s power came from a tiny black hole. The infinite gravity generated by the Singularity Drive allowed the station to run and even to move. And now, that same power would eat the station from the inside out. The Drive was located in the central sphere, deep beneath the Sanhedrin chamber.

“We can’t take the lift,” Knight said. “They might shut it down.”

Rachel glanced at the ladder, leading almost twenty meters down. Long climb. “Go on. I’ll be right behind you.”

And Knight jumped down the shaft.

Holy shit.

David must have given him a suit with a grav-net. Which was so cheating.

Rachel hopped onto the ladder and scurried down as fast as she was able. Her breath came in gasps by the end of it. This was not going to be an easy climb back with the station imploding around her. In fact, it would probably be impossible. They were all going to die in here. Phoebe might have been able to escape on the ship, but the Icie wouldn’t leave them behind. No. This would be the end of all of them.

At least it would be a good end. She had wanted to marry David. She had wanted to have children with him. She’d wanted it all, at long last. All a little too late. But if she had to give her life to help fix this horrible mess she had created, she would do so. She owed humanity that much, at the very least.

By the time she reached the bottom, a roomful of Sentinels were dead or unconscious, save a few moaning in pain from broken limbs.

Knight turned to her, then paused. Waiting for her to lead the way.

“That one,” she said, indicating the core room.

It was sealed, and it would take a lot of concentrated fire to blast through.

Knight reached both hands toward the metal door, and it shrieked. The seams shifted, and the plating bent like crumpled aluminum. Then the whole door flew off the hinges and crashed into a nearby wall.

Rachel shook her head. Well, that worked too.

“Do it,” Knight said. “I’ll keep watch.”

Rachel blew out a breath and nodded, then dashed past him into the core room. The Singularity Drive was much the same as one on a Sentinel battleship, only slightly larger. Phoebe knew more about this than Rachel did, and would have been better to weaken containment. Maybe she could have timed it well enough to escape, even.

Rachel could try to weaken the field, but if she did too much, too quickly, containment would breach and she’d be sucked in. Destroyed, body and soul. Maybe it was better that way. An instant death, rather than a futile flight up the ladder. But … Rachel wasn’t the kind to give up without a fight.

She yanked open the console and began tracing circuits, unhooking those she could without causing immediate catastrophic failure. If Phoebe were here she’d know which …

Well, why not? “Jordan to Dana. Come in Phoebe.”

“I’m here.”

“I can use the HUD in my helmet to transmit video, right?”

“Yup, yup. Making home movies?”

“Tell me how to send a signal to you.”

Phoebe did so, and Rachel programmed her suit as the woman said. “Can you see the display ahead of me?”

“Yup. You should probably put that blue wire back in.”

Pulse fire echoed from outside. The Shekhinah had to know what they were doing. It would send everything it had to stop her. She had to trust Knight was enough to hold them off.

“Walk me through this. We need to create a reaction that can’t be stopped, but gives us a couple minutes to escape.”

“All right. Start with the fusion backup cells. They’re probably under the floor panels near the console you’re working on.”

Step by step, Phoebe walked her through the process. Sweat dripped down Rachel’s face and stung her eyes, but she couldn’t remove her helmet or Phoebe wouldn’t be able to see.

A buzzing sounded, and a holographic face appeared in the air before her.

The feminine personification of the Shekhinah. It spoke, its hollow voice echoing throughout the core room. “Rachel Jordan.”

“Yeah,” she said, trying to keep her focus on the instructions Phoebe was giving through the comm. She pulled another circuit.

“Your actions will leave Mizraim in chaos.”

“True.”

“If you do not stop what you are doing, more people will die. It is your duty as a citizen of the Empire to submit to our authority.”

“Yeah, well, you betrayed us when you sided with the Angels.”

“Oh!” Phoebe said over the comm. “Tell her she shouldn’t have told my boyfriend to fuck anything with tits! Tell her that.”

“No,” Rachel said. She was not having that conversation with the computer.

“No what?” The Shekhinah said. “The Angels created us. You must submit. You are a citizen of Mizraim.”

Rachel pulled the last circuit Phoebe had indicated. “The Angels created you, Shekhinah. God created me. And now, you can go to hell.”

She rose and ran from the core. “Knight, we don’t have much time.”

They didn’t have enough time. No matter how well Phoebe had done her work, that twenty meter climb …

Knight stared up the shaft, as if thinking the same thing.

She should tell Phoebe to run. She should spare the girl, though she knew losing Knight would devastate the Icie. And David … Poor David. Rachel would give anything to spare him the loss.

Knight wrapped an arm around her. “Hold tight to me.”

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey!” Phoebe shouted over the comm, and Rachel realized the vid feed was still on.

The floor panel beneath them trembled, and she would have fallen if not for Knight’s arm around her. And then the panel shot upward, flinging them in a rapid ascent up the shaft.

Rachel shrieked clutching her arms around Knight’s ribs. The pane carried them like a lift and they shot free of the shaft. Instead of stepping off the panel, Knight spread his arms, and it took off horizontally like a hover carrier. They sped over the bridge so fast the shrieking wind threatened to strip her off Knight. He stood firm, arms stretched out to either side.

“Holy shit!” Phoebe said over the comm. “I have totally got to try that! Plus, just this once, I’ll forgive you for putting your arms around him.”

They slowed as they drew near the ship, then dropped to the floor. Knight swayed in her grasp and collapsed to his knees.

“No you don’t!” Rachel said. She yanked him to his feet, threw his arm over her shoulder, and pulled him into the ship.

Phoebe grabbed him and helped him into a seat, and Rachel strapped into the pilot’s chair. She overrode the airlock and shot from the station as fast as she was able.

Behind them, metal rent and tore, sucked into a massive implosion. As the ship sped away from the station, anything close by was caught in the gravity well and drawn in. And Rachel watched as the Tabernacle, symbol of Mizraim, vanished into nothingness.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-EIGHT

March 25th

Today is the day.

In the wake of the Tabernacle’s destruction, David had ordered the fleet to withdraw and disband. Rachel supposed he thought it best not to let the Ark find them together until they planned their next step. With the Shekhinah gone, they could at last count on Hannah and their other allies.

Which meant she breathed with relief, and slept well that night. The Ark was still out there. The Angels were still bent on the conquest of mankind and the annihilation of Asherah. But mankind had won a victory this day, and word had come back from Lamport. The Aluf had succeeded in taking out all targets, albeit at cost. Many lives had been lost on all fronts, but they had shown the Angels humans were no longer sheep to be dominated. And that was a victory, as far as she was concerned.

So, a day later, when they reached Rehobath, David contacted the governor—an old friend of Leah’s family named Ephraim Geum. And the perfect official for her wedding.

She sat in her quarters with Phoebe, who was braiding her hair.

“So are you really going to let your brother out of the brig for this?” Phoebe asked.

“He said he wants to be there. And considering there will be dozens of Sentinels, I don’t think he’d try anything.”

“Plus he’s probably scared of Knight.”

As well he should be. Knight had no love for her brother, who had tortured him with a stun baton the first time they’d met. And only a fool wanted to be on the Gehennan’s shit list.

Her Mazzaroth screen blinked with an incoming call. Caleb Gavet.

Rachel waved it off. It was her wedding day. She had neither the time nor the inclination to listen to the man right now. It was possible they might be on the same side at this point—she’d figure that out later.

“Thank you,” she said to Phoebe. “I mean for my hair, your friendship … everything.”

“Yup, yup. I’m a pal. I’m your gal pal.”

Rachel smiled and, a few minutes later, followed Phoebe into the ship’s atrium. Much of the crew had gathered to see their captain wed. Some in uniform, but many in dress suits. Her brother stood nearby, in a suit as well, hands studiously tucked at his side. And free of mag restraints. She was grateful for that.

And, at the front stood David, and beside him Knight. Both men wore suits, but only David wore it well. Knight looked about as comfortable as a tiger would, if pressed into such garb.

Leah stood in the audience, and even through the surge of joy permeating the atrium, Rachel could feel the other woman’s jealousy, though it intermingled with support and happiness for her friend. A hint of a tear clouded Leah’s eyes. But then, most would take it for tears of joy.

“Don’t look at her,” Phoebe whispered.

The Colder-worlder was right. It was hard enough for Leah without her knowing Rachel could feel her emotions. So Rachel locked her gaze on David, who beamed at her with that bright smile that looked like it belonged on a travel brochure for a paradise planet.

Rachel stepped up beside him and took his hand. And Phoebe stood in support of her, as Knight stood beside David.

Governor Geum bowed to them. “Stories tell of an ancient tradition from the days of Eden. When a couple were so in love they wished to pledge to spend the rest of their lives together, they would be publicly joined. Sadly, we do not know all the rituals of ancient marriage customs. But today we gather to celebrate its spirit. Do you, David McGregor, wish to declare an eternal monogamous relationship with this woman?”

“Aye. I do. Absolutely. Have for quite some time.”

A few Sentinels chuckled.

“And do you, Rachel Jordan, wish to declare the same relationship with this man?”

“Yes. I do.” Saying the words was like lifting a weight from her chest. Like she had been running a race all her life, and she could finally rest. Because she had won the race. And there might be others ahead of her, but for now, she’d finally reached her destination.

And tears built in her eyes. For once, it didn’t embarrass her. Even David’s eyes were moist.

“Very good,” Geum said, and presented a document on a tablet. “Sign here and your marriage will be proclaimed across the Mazzaroth, held as true on all worlds in the universe.”

Rachel signed her name and handed the pen to David. He signed as well.

“Then I declare you wed!” Geum said, raising the tablet high.

David grabbed her around the waist and kissed her deeply. He massaged her lips, and she fell away into him. Until, at last, Phoebe cleared her throat.

Rachel pulled away, and they both chuckled.

David shook his head, and took her by the hand to speak with the guests.

Her brother leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. “Congratulations, Rach.”

“Thanks, Miah.” Maybe it was too much to hope for, but still, she allowed herself to believe Raziel had gotten through to him. To believe it … at least for today.

Music started, and she danced with David again and again. Others danced as well, and it seemed Phoebe had even convinced Knight to give it a try. He clearly didn’t know how, despite his natural grace. Rachel tried not to let him see her smirk.

An hour in, Leah approached. “Can I … Would you mind if I had a dance with him?”

Rachel looked deep into the other woman’s eyes, then smiled. “Of course, Leah. David, I’ll just grab a seat and catch my breath.” It was the gracious thing to do. Leah was a good friend to David … Void, Leah was a good friend to Rachel, despite her feelings. She was the kind of person who deserved better. And Rachel truly, truly hoped she would find someone.

Rachel sunk down at a table and ordered a drink, then waved over an ensign. “Do you have a tablet?”

The young ensign nodded, then fetched her one. Even listening to whatever Caleb had to say would be better than watching Leah and David together. She didn’t want to be the jealous wife who couldn’t share her husband. She was better than that.

She accessed her personal Mazzaroth, and saw Caleb had left her a message.

“Play.”

His face lit the screen, creased with worry. “Rachel … I …” He looked over his shoulder. “I was so wrong. About everything. Apollo—”

The transmission ended.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-NINE

April 20th, 3097 EY

Nearly a month has passed since the fall of the Tabernacle. No one has seen the Angels, but I do not dare hope they have left us in peace for good. And though I wanted to enjoy my new marriage to David, political circumstances have left precious few moments to savor it.

To save the Sentinels, to save mankind, David had led an assault against the Tabernacle itself—the very symbol of his civilization. And in destroying it, his worst fears had manifested. The Sentinels, now free from Angel monitoring, had collapsed into civil war, rebuffing his attempts to mediate peace between them.

After all, why should they flock to the man who led them to this chaos?

“I know what you’re feeling,” Rachel said. She sat on the bed across from him in the quarters they now shared, her legs folded beneath her. Damn empath always knew what he was feeling. “And it’s not your fault. You’ve done the best you could with what we had.”

David grunted, pretending to look at the tablet with the thrice-damned report. Asheran Leviathans seizing control of Mizraim space. They had already taken half of the Pegasus Dwarf galaxy, and with the Sentinels too busy fighting each other, any attempt to stand up to the Asheran advance proved short-lived.

He tossed the tablet on the table and scratched his head. “How could they do this, lass?”

Rachel shrugged. “Did you expect the alliance to last once the Angels disappeared?”

David had bloody well hoped so. Working with the Asherans got him called a traitor by some, but it had represented an enormous stride toward greater peace in the universe. Or so he had thought. And the truth was—though his empathic abilities were weak—he knew Rachel felt just as betrayed.

He turned on the Mazzaroth and stood before the screen. “Contact Aluf Mishma Lamport.”

The screen flashed for a moment. “Call refused,” his personal Mazzaroth voice said. Again.

David sighed and leaned against the wall, head between his hands. He had helped the Asheran bugger take out Sentinel outposts to distract the Angels. And now … God, what a fool he’d been.

“If we hadn’t worked with them, we might not have brought down the Tabernacle,” Rachel said. “It at least stopped the Angel attacks.”

“For how long? Right now, they’re just waiting for us to finish tearing ourselves apart. We’ve shown we can hurt them, aye, so now they sit back and let us solve the problem for them.”

Rachel rose slowly. He didn’t look at her, but he could feel her saunter over. She slipped her arms around his waist and leaned her head against his back. He couldn’t feel her warmth through his uniform, but the pressure was enough. With all that had happened, at least she was here with him. There was one person in the universe he knew would always be on his side. His wife. It had taken some getting used to, thinking of her that way.

“I just hoped …” he said.

“You hoped it would be the first step to a united humanity,” Rachel said. “Yeah. I know, me too. I’m an expert in that sort of self-deluding optimism, Mac. We don’t have to do this anymore, you know. We could … just go. Somewhere. The Angels have given us a reprieve.”

Run away from the whole buggered-up mess. Escape to some world on the fringes and build a life. He was sorely tempted. But they both knew the Angels would be back, sooner or later. When humanity had worn itself out with civil wars, the Angels would return and resume subjugating mankind.

David turned around in her arms and led her back to the bed. He pulled her down to sit in his lap and held her without speaking for a long time. Rachel leaned against his chest, obviously picking up on his desire for a quiet moment. Time to think.

The Sentinels were divided because, with the loss of the Shekhinah and the Sanhedrin, they had no clear leader. Without a central authority, each captain had to make his or her own decisions about what was right. That had led to three factions he knew of, and a bunch of lone ships acting on their own. Some had sided with him. Friends, like Hannah Hertz, still worked to bring the Sentinels back together. But so many of the others blamed David for the chaos, he had thought it best he step aside and let Hannah take charge of reunification. She had more chance of swaying the Angel loyalists than he did.

Then there was a separatist movement calling themselves the New Eden Republic. A faction led by a growing number of captains who wanted nothing to do with either Angels or David’s people, whom they considered traitors. The Separatists planned to start their own republic around mankind’s recently rediscovered homeworld. The Seekers of Eden had thrown their lot in with NER. From what he heard, because of the psychic ghosts on Eden, they had been building camps on the other planets in the system.

The NER might actually be his best chance for allies, if he could just get them to sit down for a wee chat. Seemed as though almost no one wanted to speak with him these days.

At last he sighed. There was someone who wanted to speak with him. “I got a call from Leah this morning,” he said.

Rachel grunted noncommittally. “And how is the doctor?”

Leah had asked to stay behind on Rehobath with her family after David and Rachel had married there. Given all they had been through, he could hardly deny her some personal leave. The truth was, knowing her feelings for him, it was probably best he give her some space. He could have her transferred to another ship—the Wake of Stars, maybe. Hannah could certainly use the help. Of course, he would miss the lass terribly. For years she had been his best friend and confidant. Rachel had begun taking Leah’s place in those aspects, but he still missed the Amphie.

“She requested we stop by to pick her up. She says she wants to return to duty.”

“And you want her to.”

“I’m not sure.”

“Yes you are. Just go get her, Mac.”

The Sephirot was already in Andromeda, trying in vain to help Hannah’s efforts. He could reach Rehobath in a day. “Have you ever seen Floating City?”

Rachel shook her head.

“Rehobath it is, then.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY

April 21st

I won’t lie. I have mixed feelings about Leah. She’s been in love with my husband a long time, and I think she only recently admitted it even to herself. Still, she’s part of the crew, a talented medic, and … David’s truest friend. I cannot deny him that. Besides, I look forward to seeing Rehobath. Though the world is owned by the Mizraim Empire, it is primarily run by Zebulun, due to the valuable subsea mining operations conducted all over the planet. The Angels seeded the world with human life because of the mineral deposits, but in the following millennia the locals have turned it into a fine place to visit.

Rehobath was an ocean world. With the exception of icecaps on the poles, it had no land to speak of. A spattering of platforms and underwater settlements dotted the globe, especially around the equator, where reefs were rich in crystals and minerals ideal for subsea mining.

David had visited the planet several times before, or at least the capital, Floating City. As the named implied, it was a platform floating on the equator. Leah’s family, like most, lived up there. Underwater, a column reached down several hundred meters to connect to the lower city—commonly known as the Benthic.

The planet had no proper space port, but rather an orbital docking platform. From there, he and Rachel took a shuttle down to Floating City. She stared out the window at the oceans as they landed on a shuttle pad.

“God, I can see fish in the water,” she said.

“Aye. Around these parts the ocean’s clear as the rivers on New Rome … as they were.”

“Mmmm.” She scurried out of the shuttle and over to the pad’s rail. “Do you think the water’s cold?”

“Not here, no. There’s an artificial beach in the south district. Tourists come here to swim with the dolphins and rays. It’s bloody deep down there, though. Not like stepping off a beach at home. Go out far and you’d just fall off the shelf.”

Rachel beamed like a double sunrise. “Okay. Totally got to try that. How … how big are the rays?”

David smiled and began leading her to the beach. Nice to see the lass enjoying herself like old times. Back when the universe was simpler. Back when Angels were a memory to be revered, instead of aliens to be fought. “Mantas get to be almost ten meters in wingspan.”

“Holy shit. That’s huge. Are … are there sharks? Whales?”

“Whales, aye, but not in these waters. No sharks. Angels never seeded them here. Guess it would have interfered with the mining operations.”

“I like this planet,” she said. She rushed down another street, gazing at palm trees and shops selling margaritas.

The buildings here weren’t as tall as those on other planets—five or six stories, usually no more. Here, the city built down, not up. The platform was wide—several kilometers in diameter, which meant there was no chance of it capsizing. The Angels knew what they were about when they designed the place.

Most of the buildings were painted white, or light blue, and tropical flowers grew everywhere. Though most of the planet’s industry was controlled by Zebulun, the locals had turned Floating City into a relaxing paradise for suits or Sentinels needing a vacation. Once, he’d taken shore leave here with Leah. The lass had five sisters, four of whom still lived here. They’d fawned over him, offering him mojitos, spicy boiled shrimp, and anything else he needed. Alisa, the oldest, was a professional masseuse and had given him the finest massage he’d ever had.

David smiled at the thought and followed Rachel as she dashed down the beach. Pink sand kicked up under her boots when she ran toward a concession stand. A wide palm umbrella shaded a local Amphie selling cocktails.

“Uh, lass,” David said. “If you’re going swimming, best save the alcohol for after that.”

Rachel rolled her eyes, but shrugged at the vendor and walked toward the sea. She unbonded her jacket and tossed it aside. “Where can we get swimwear?”

Her suit was waterproof, but he supposed she’d want to feel the water on her skin. David scratched his head. “Uh, on this planet most of the people don’t bother with that.”

“They swim naked?” she asked.

David pointed at people out in the water. Because the waters were so clear, it was obvious most wore nothing.

“Huh,” Rachel said, and stared.

David folded his arms and watched her, trying not to grin. “Still want to go swimming, lass? If you’re feeling shy I’ll bet you could find a tourist shop with a bikini.” Most of the sunbathers did have some kind of undergarments on. They just tended to strip them off when swimming.

Rachel scrunched her face and stuck out her tongue. “You’re the one with the fair Calnehian skin. I don’t burn.” And she pulled off her undershirt and tossed it on top of her jacket.

David unabashedly stared at her breasts. “I love you, wife.”

“Oh, you’re coming too.”

“Aye?” He followed her lead and stripped his clothes, then chased her into the sea.

For a short distance they could walk along the bottom, but the slope was steep, and soon he had to swim. Rachel dove underwater, and he followed. Not far off shore, dolphins played with tourists and local Amphies, long accustomed to their presence. For an hour he swam with Rachel. She was panting when they crawled back onto the beach.

“You know, lass,” he said, a little winded himself, “you can get a breather. If you want to dive longer.”

“I might,” she said. She slipped back into her undergarments and headed for the concession stand. “Maybe a break first.”

“Aye.” David pulled his own clothes back own. “You can check into a hotel if you like. I need to find Leah.”

Rachel nodded, then ordered a drink.

David left her to relax and headed toward the city center. If he remembered correctly, Leah’s family had a condo there. He toured the buildings until one looked familiar, then tapped its console. “Suzuki family.”

A moment later the screen filled with Alisa’s face. “Hello? Oh! You’re Leah’s boyfriend, right? Want another massage?”

“Uh … I’m not …” David cleared his throat. Had the girl misunderstood, or had Leah misled her? Most likely the former. He couldn’t see Leah doing that … not really. “Is she around?”

“She went diving down from the Benthic. Red Chamber, I think.”

Diving. Meaning no comm.

“All right, thanks, lass.” He released the console and headed toward one of the lifts. Both the column and lift had smart glass walls, allowing him to see the rainbow assortment of fish as he descended. Truly a beautiful sight. In the distance, he caught sight of a manta, the largest he’d ever seen. With luck, Rachel would get the chance to see the behemoth.

The lift settled down, and he followed lighted panels toward the Red Chamber. Color-coded lights led to seven different diving chambers, in addition to several research and storage stations down here. Mostly Amphies came to the dive chambers for mining work, but some came just for recreation. Norms and other non-Amphies couldn’t well swim this deep, so it was private, secluded from most tourists.

Red lights lit the ceiling of the Red Chamber. When he entered, a half-dozen workers loaded hauls of crystals onto a hover transport. Some wore shorts and loose shirts, but others wore nothing. David tried not to stare. Had to remember local customs varied on each planet.

A man popped up from one of the dive pools—large circular wells all around the Red Chamber—hefting a fiber net filled with crystals after him. When he broke the surface, micro hover jets on the net activated, allowing him to lift it clear.

David watched for a moment, then someone rose from the waters of another pool. Leah. Completely nude.

She stepped free of the pool, beaming at him. “David!”

He coughed and looked at the floor. Knowing she had feelings for him made seeing her naked all the more awkward.

An instant she wavered, covering her breasts with her webbed fingers. “I … I’m sorry. I didn’t know you would come down here … I didn’t. Um …” She scurried over to her discarded clothes.

“It’s all right, lass. We … we’ve been swimming together before.”

“You … You want to swim?”

“Couldn’t take the pressure down here.” Which was putting it mildly.

“Right. Right.” She slipped into her clothes, so at last he turned to look at her directly. Water streamed from her dark hair. A hint of a smile played on her lips, but she still looked embarrassed.

No sense in that. David stepped to her side and embraced her. “Good to see you, lass.”

“Yeah.”

“I missed you, Leah. I’m glad you’re coming back to the Sephirot. Rachel and I are going to stay the night here, but we’ll have to go in the morning.”

Leah nodded. “Um, okay. How about if you come to my house for dinner? Both of you, I mean.”

“Aye, okay.” Her sisters did make some fine shrimp. And maybe Rachel wouldn’t object if he got a massage after all. “I’ll meet you back there at sunset, then.”

He trod back toward the lift, then hunted down Rachel. She had checked into the Fairbreeze Hotel by the beach. It was a good choice. He’d stayed there once before. All the rooms had a great view.

When he entered their room, she was on the line with Phoebe.

“You want me to patch the transmission down to you?”

“Sure,” Rachel said. “Did she say what was up?”

“Nope. Seemed stressed though. How’s the planet? Hot as all void, I’ll bet.”

“Yeah, you’d hate it. Knight might enjoy it, though.”

Phoebe snorted. “You think I’d send him down to a beach filled with naked girls without me? Yup, totally sounds like a plan. A terrible plan. I’m patching you through.”

“Who is it?” David whispered to Rachel as he came to sit beside her on the bed. Maybe best not to mention how he’d found Leah.

“Degana O’Malley.”

David nodded. He appreciated Rachel’s friendship with Thomas’s sister. It seemed to relax her, having a girlfriend to talk to, and that worked for David. Of course, now that O’Malley was working for the NER, she had less time for chit-chat.

The Icie’s call filled the screen. “Rachel. Thank God. I need you here as soon as you can.”

Rachel rose from the bed. “Why? What happened?”

“The Angels have brought in multiple ships. They and their Sentinel allies are conquering the whole damn Milky Way. They’re going to shut down the Republic before we can even get off the ground.”

“Are you all right?” Rachel asked.

“Yes, for now. They haven’t come after Eden itself. But Rachel, outlaying systems are falling fast.”

Bloody void. He’d known the peace with the Angels was too good to last. Rachel turned to look at him, pleading in her eyes. David nodded. It seemed they were going to miss dinner.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-ONE

Degana is one of the few true friends I have. Even if I didn’t believe in the NER—and I do—I could not abandon her. Moreover, the Republic offers mankind the chance I always wanted to give them. The chance to stand on our own feet, free from the legacy of the Angels.

Rachel stood before the door to Raziel’s quarters, running her arguments through her mind. Then the door opened, even before she buzzed it. Of course.

The Angel sat on a stool in front of his Mazzaroth screen, though he had turned to face her. He waved her inside and indicated for her to sit on the couch against the wall. Probably never even used it himself. It must have been awkward with those wings.

Rachel slunk down on the couch and let her head fall into her hands.

“I don’t know,” the Angel said.

“What?”

“You wanted to ask me what we can do to stop the Ark and other Angel ships. I don’t know. I must go to them, try pleading the case in person. Perhaps they will hear me then, listen to my version of how humanity has changed. I might be able to still their anger if I look into their eyes. But they are very angry, Rachel.”

Rachel rubbed her temples. She’d grown used to having Raziel on board. He was cryptic, annoyingly vague, and sometimes obstinate … but he was a font of knowledge she could turn to when the universe seemed too mired in confusion. And if he left … if he went to his brethren and they did not side with him …

“I do not believe they would harm me, Rachel.”

She cleared her throat. “Do you mind? I mean, if we have both sides of this conversation aloud? Just to humor me.”

Raziel spread his hands.

“So … since you’re being so forthcoming today … What’s with the wings, anyway? They seem to interfere with you sitting or lounging or probably even sleeping.”

“The wings are retractable using molecular compression technology. Angels keep them visible in front of humans as a means of distinguishing ourselves from you. Assuming that is what we desire. Were I to walk this ship without them, your kind would be confused.”

Huh. Molecular compression? Like an advanced form of the same tech that had allowed Knight’s swords to expand. The damn wings actually folded up inside an Angel. Which meant it was even easier for them to pass for human than she’d realized. Could she have met other Angels and not even known it? Could they be out there now, in the general population, spying on mankind?

Raziel folded his arms. Bastard was waiting for her to ask the question aloud.

Stay out of my mind.

“It is so inviting. Forgive me. I do not believe there are many of us in hiding, but yes, there may be others.”

Rachel ran a hand through her hair. So. Angels were likely out there, watching humanity all this time. Seeing them slowly turn away from the Covenant, but doing nothing. “You said some of the Angels were fallen, that they had betrayed you. That they served the Adversary. What is the Adversary, then?”

Raziel shut his eyes and shook his head. “Sin. Nightmare.”

“That’s not an answer. Tell me the truth about your history, Raziel. What are you so afraid of? Aren’t we in this together, now?”

The Angel stood, knocking over the stool. “I am not afraid, Ms. Jordan. I am prudent. I have spent billions of years planning, working to thwart the Adversary. Searching for a way to overcome the Beast. Do not presume to know my mind.”

The Beast? The Codex said something about that. That the Beast was an agent of the Adversary, a weapon of destruction.

She raised her hands, hoping to soothe him. He was obviously agitated, but she doubted he’d harm her. Still, any chance to get answers was an opportunity she couldn’t afford to miss. “Tell me about the Beast, then.”

Raziel sighed, shaking his head. “Curiosity can be a sin, Rachel. Incessant curiosity is pride … the pride of thinking you are ready for any truths that might lurk out there. The reality is, there are always truths you are not prepared for. Once you open the door, it cannot be shut again.”

“Sin or not, curiosity is human nature. God made us this way. Did he not?”

The Angel looked away, staring at the ceiling.

“Can you blame us for the way God made us?”

“I do not know the mind of God.”

“But you’ve … really spoken to Him?”

Raziel chuckled, his voice dry and hollow. “Pride was our sin, as well. We were trying to protect you. To offer you reality in terms you could understand. And in so doing we … It is one of those sins we find so easy to repeat, is it not, Rachel?”

Deep down, she had known all long. “You were never sent by God.”

At last he turned to her, looking her straight in the eyes. The Angel grabbed her shoulders, then, and Rachel jerked at his sudden speed. Raziel’s grip was like steel. His fingers dug into her shoulders until she had to fight the urge to gasp.

“Listen to me, Rachel. I know you have a fascination with Asherah and their breaches of the Covenant. You want to doubt. You look at our sins, the sins we Angels committed. And you think if such imperfect beings made these rules, why should we be bound by them?”

“No shit. You try to tell us what we can and can’t do with our own bodies—”

“Do not put cybernetics into your body, Rachel,” he said, voice low. “Not ever.”

“Why the void not?” One rule for the Angels, one rule for humanity. They claimed God sent them. But she’d seen the look on his face. Raziel had never spoken to God … Maybe the Angel wasn’t even sure there was a God. He was an alien who had come and made up laws to bind humans. “You did.”

“We can no longer live without them. And so we live in continuous torment, at war with ourselves, trembling before the passage of the Beast. And some of us fell.”

Rachel shook in his arms and he released her. “What does that mean? You fell. Fine. So what, the fallen …?”

“They serve the Adversary now. I have to go, Rachel. I will try to do what I can for your people.” At that, he turned and strode from the room.

Leaving her alone. She collapsed onto his bed and rubbed her temples. The Adversary ship that attacked Eden looked like the Ark … Because it was piloted by Angels. It was an Angel ship. Some of them were in service to the Adversary and its Beast. Out of fear? Raziel said they were at war with themselves. A civil war among Angels.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-TWO

April 22nd

We race to aid Degana and the NER, but I cannot help but feel more things are going on here—events beyond my knowledge. And I fear the future.

Caleb woke screaming. Cold sweat streamed down his face and neck. Rebekah, lying by his side, wiped it away, and he let himself fall into her lap. He felt like weeping, but he couldn’t allow himself such weakness. Not in front of her. She needed him to be strong.

They had escaped the Sons of Cain on a Jericho transport ship, the Balaam. A few loyal mercenaries had helped him take it and get away. And since then, the Sons had pursued him. From the moment he turned on Apollo. From the moment he realized what that bastard was doing.

Every night, the same torment. Even on waking, he felt that alien presence in his mind. The whispering, the threatening, the pleading, the demanding. It was cold and on fire. A burning ache searing down to his soul.

On Apollo’s orders he had destroyed four Angel stations. And with each one, the presence had grown stronger. Until at last, in a fit of revelation, he’d known. He’d known the unspeakable truth.

Apollo was in communion with the Adversary. The Angel stations … Caleb had thought to weaken the Angels. They were his enemies, after all. They were hunting down cyborgs—Caleb’s own kind, thanks to Apollo—and slaughtering every last one of them. So any power he denied them was a victory. He was fighting to save the universe from oppression. Except the Adversary was real. And those Angel stations had been holding it back, keeping it at bay. And with each he destroyed, the true foe of humanity grew in power.

He had been wrong about everything. Wrong to ever trust Apollo. Wrong to destroy the Angel stations, though they too were his enemies. And he had damned Rebekah down this same path. He wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close.

“What’s wrong, love?” she asked.

Everything.

Everything was wrong. In fear for his life and family, he’d followed a madman into Hell. And though he would like to blame mere self-preservation and love of his wife and children for his sins, he had started down the path willingly. For power and greed and fame and the chance to fuck pretty little things like Rebekah.

God, he’d tried to warn Rachel Jordan. He once tried to sway her to his point of view, and in so doing might well have damned her too. And when he tried to tell her his folly—that was when the Sons of Cain found out about him. They’d broken in on him and stopped the transmission. If he hadn’t had a few mercenaries nearby …

The truth was, he doubted Ezra Dana had any idea about the truth of who he was working for. As one of the Sons of Cain, he was a pirate serving Apollyon for easy money. But the Icie had given Caleb no chance to explain. And who would believe such off rotation nonsense in any event?

He pulled himself up to face Rebekah. She was naked, but he had no energy to take her now. He should. If only for a moment’s reprieve. There were too many voices in his mind. Not just Apollo, not anymore. Others … calling his name. Clawing at his mind and soul. He had no peace except when he was buried inside Rebekah. Somehow, she stilled the voices, if only for a moment.

As if she could sense what he needed, she kissed him. Her tongue massaged his, and the pain began to recede. For a heartbeat he had clarity of thought. It was the Great Attractor. That’s when things first became so bad. Out there, looking into the void …

Rebekah’s hands ran down his chest and over his abdomen. He felt himself harden. She caressed his whole body, and the tension fled. She was his little heaven. His redemption.

Rebekah was … Was not Ayelet. His wife was …

His assistant lowered herself onto him, and thought fled. Her fiery hair brushed across his face. That’s right, she was heaven.

He kissed her again and again, and they made love. Then at last he fell back, spent, and at peace. It wouldn’t last. It never did.

Apollo had to know Caleb had betrayed him. He would make good on his threat. God, why hadn’t Caleb acted sooner? Why hadn’t he …?

Rebekah brushed his cheek, and her face filled his mind. Ayelet was fine. James and Miriam were fine. No one would …

No! They were his life. He had to be sure.

Caleb sat up roughly. “I need you to do something for me. I need you to go to Sepharvaim and get my family. I can’t go, he’d be watching for me.”

Rebekah frowned. “You don’t want me to leave your side again, Caleb.”

Of course he didn’t. The thought of losing even the brief peace she offered him … The thought he would spend every waking moment in torment and every minute of sleep visited with horrors he never quite recalled on waking … It left his insides cold. But … But his family … He could not sacrifice them for his own sake.

“Please. You’re the only one I can trust.”

“We should just go back to him, then,” Rebekah said. “Explain we made a mistake. It’s the best way to keep them safe. You don’t want me to leave.”

They could go back to Apollo. He might accept them back. Punishment might follow later, but his family would be safe.

Caleb chewed his thumb for a moment, indulging in the self-delusion. They wouldn’t be safe. Even if Apollo didn’t have them killed, they would never be safe. Not in the universe Caleb had helped to create. Not in a universe overrun with the unfathomable hatred and darkness the Adversary represented.

“Go to Sepharvaim. Please, Rebekah. Get them and bring them to me.”

She folded her arms and snorted, then hopped out of the bed.

The instant she left, the pressure in his mind returned.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-THREE

April 24th

The Redeemers cling hopelessly, blindly, to the Codex. I have tried to tell my brother the words are suspect. Angels claim their words are divine and thus beyond reproach. But they are divine set by their own standards. For my trouble, I have been named blasphemer and khapiru.

Rachel’s brother had come to her wedding, and it had meant the world to her. For so long they had been on opposite sides—ideologically, and now militarily. But he had come to see her married, and she’d never forget that. Jeremiah hadn’t complained when he was escorted back to the brig afterward. He was charged with assault and murder of Sentinels, and, if the universe were not in such chaos, would likely have already been sentenced to a world such as Horesh.

The one reason to be grateful for the ongoing war against the Angels. Her brother was still in the brig, and Rachel tried to visit him at least once a week. He wouldn’t see things her way, but after meeting Raziel, he had at least become less hostile. Maybe she could even get something useful out of Jeremiah.

Now the Angels were back, and working with the Redeemers. And, if rumors held true, they had dangerous allies.

Rachel paced in front of her brother’s cell. “Is it true the Gogmagog have signed on with the Redeemers?”

Jeremiah sat on his cot, leaning against the wall, legs folded beneath him.

“Miah? Are you working with those creatures?”

The Angels’ secret police were the first tradition to be shed following the Days of Glory. Even Redeemers didn’t—or hadn’t—supported the spies.

“It’s not our place to question the Angels.”

“They question themselves!” Raziel was gone. Shame—if the Angel were here, maybe he could talk some sense into Jeremiah. “They’ve been engaged in some kind of civil war for God-only-knows how long.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The Adversary is fallen Angels, those who turned against their own kind.”

“No.”

She shook her head and paused in her pacing. “It’s the truth, Miah.”

She could feel his uncertainty, his doubts, wafting off him and clogging the air. She had to remind herself they were his fears, not hers. She had more than enough of her own.

“The universe is not as simple as either of us once believed, brother. The Angels are more than the oppressors I once took them for … and far, far less than the divine saviors you worship them as.”

Jeremiah let his head fall into his hands, saying nothing. If she told him what Raziel had recently shared with her, it might break him. He had built the foundation of his life on faith. And when that crumbled away, maybe he would be lost. But she had to believe the truth was the best road. For thousands of years Angels had lied to mankind while telling themselves they did it for humanity’s own good. But such deceptions twisted and writhed over time, taking on insidious lives of their own. Until men like her brother became zealots for causes as ephemeral as dark energy.

Rachel leaned against the smart glass. How could she knowingly cause her own brother such pain? The moment she spoke, he would spiral into the abyss of doubt and pain. And maybe, maybe he would never find his way free. But then … to leave him mired in self-delusion was perhaps still the crueler act.

“Raziel told me … The Angels lied to us. They told us what they thought we needed to hear in order to listen to them. God never sent them, Miah. They’ve never seen God, never spoken to Him. They’re just aliens.”

“Lies!” Jeremiah jumped to his feet. He clenched his hands at his side, sputtering and grinding his teeth.

Though he feigned rage, she could feel the undercurrents of horror seeping out of his cell. She had broken something within him and his universe was crumbling around him.

“I’m sorry, brother.”

The bitter truth was all she had to offer him. He sank to his knees and his head fell to his chest. Rachel sighed, and left him. Time alone with his thoughts might be his only remedy.

Outside the brig, she found Knight waiting for her.

“What is it?”

“We’ll reach Eden soon,” he said.

“Yeah.” It would be nice to see Degana again. Thomas’s sister was a sweet girl who loved to laugh and tried to look for the bright side in everything. Her brother’s death had broken her heart, but she’d kept going with a smile on her face and a kind word for Rachel at every turn. Rachel wasn’t going to let her down now.

“I’m coming with you. The last time you went to a secret meeting the Redeemers broke it up. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She smiled and walked with him toward the lift. His earnest loyalty warmed her. Less than a year ago he’d been a brutal, rough killer who feigned indifference to the people around him. Faced with Armageddon, Knight had become a hero. More than that—he’d become Nephilim, a being of legend. His telekinetic powers were shocking, even if he had little in the way of other Psych abilities.

“I’m proud of you,” she said.

He cleared his throat, saying nothing.

Still a bit socially awkward, but that was improving, too.

“You know David is going to be there. He’s more than capable of protecting me, Knight.”

“Yeah. Still going.”

Rachel smiled.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FOUR

The claims of divinity were ludicrous, even before Raziel admitted they were lies. The Angels are beings of violence, of flaw. They rule as tyrants and enforce their ways with the sword. But such claims, repeated long enough, become self-perpetuating. Children believe as they are taught, until the worship of Angels became ingrained in our basic nature.

Knight exited the shuttle behind Rachel and David, with Phoebe on his heels. He wore his helmet up to protect against the thin atmosphere. The red planet had never been terraformed, so the colonists here had constructed several domed enclosures. Eventually the NER would look to hire Laban Worlds to terraform this planet as the capital of the Republic. They were already calling it New Eden.

That was, of course, if the Angels allowed this place to exist. And they wouldn’t. It represented a direct challenge to their authority. In a way, they ruled like the Shadow Council of Gehenna. Absolute authority, enforced through terror. Men obeyed the Shadow Council because if they didn’t, the Gibborim showed up. Now, the Angels threatened to destroy whole fucking planets if mankind didn’t get in line.

Knight had had more than enough of totalitarian regimes. A republic sounded like idealist nonsense to him, but it was about a trillion times better than the alternative.

It was a short trek from the landing platform to the central dome where they were to meet Rachel’s friend. Red dust kicked up under their boots as they walked, especially Rachel, who clearly had no practice at stepping lightly. When they reached the dome she buzzed the airlock.

Knight followed the others inside then removed his helmet once air whooshed into the chamber. The dome beyond was perhaps five kilometers in diameter. Not large for a center of government, so people were tightly packed among narrow streets. Hovers whizzed by, carrying supplies—crates marked with the cornucopia of Manna Products. It would be a long time before people on this planet could grow more than small hydroponic gardens.

Knight’s fingers twitched at the mass of people so close. His pulse pistol was folded into the thigh holster on his suit, but he could eject it and fire in a heartbeat. With so many here, it was hard to tell who might be a Redeemer agent. And those chameleon Gog things could be anywhere.

He swore something moved in the shadow of an alley. Knight took a step toward the shifting darkness.

“That’s him,” someone said.

“The Nephilim!”

He turned to see a small crowd forming up around their group.

“Your fame precedes you, big guy,” Phoebe said.

“Shite, we don’t need this,” David said, as more and more people flocked around them, clogging the already narrow walkways.

“Are you here to lead us into the light?” a child asked.

“The what now?”

“They say you’re half Angel,” another man said. “That you can crush a ship with your mind.”

“Uh, no. A shuttle, maybe.” He tried to shoulder his way through, but it was like the whole damn colony had come out to see the freak.

Several fell to their knees. “Save us, navi,” a woman said. “Bless us.”

Knight shrugged and stepped around her. This was off rotation. They thought he was a prophet? If God spoke through anyone’s voice, it would not be his.

“Hey!” Rachel shouted. “He’s not a damned navi. Move on.”

A pair of young women stepped in front of him, twins by the look of it. One had hair dyed green, the other dyed blue. “Excuse me,” the blue-haired one said. “Can we have your seed?”

Knight’s jaw dropped and he sputtered. He’d thought with the Shekhinah gone, maybe the need to spread his DNA would evaporate, too.

Phoebe shoved both girls to either side. “Sorry, ladies, he’s fresh out. No planting of seeds going on today. But if you stick around, I may be willing to plant my boot up your asses.” She grabbed Knight’s arm and yanked him after her. “And you, don’t get too excited there.”

“I wasn’t!”

“Right. For future reference, let’s just assume I’m the only farmer in charge of your seed. I’ll tell you when and where to plant it, m’kay?”

David snickered from behind. Knight gave him the finger without turning around.

Phoebe pulled him along until they reached a central building, marked with the letters N-E-R. They were going to need a symbol at some point. Something striking and bold.

A guard at the door scanned their palms to check DNA, then waved them inside. A secretary escorted them to a meeting room where a half-dozen Sentinel captains sat around a table, debating with each other and even more politicians. Knight recognized two of them from prior meetings. An Icie woman rose as they approached and rushed over to embrace Rachel.

“Degana. So good to see you.”

“You too! I heard you got married. I can’t believe you didn’t invite me.”

“It was kind of a rush thing.”

“Yeah, well … Is this the lucky guy?” She turned to David and offered a hand.

He took it and nodded. “Nice to see you again, Ms. O’Malley.”

“Probably safe to call me Degana at this point, Captain. Won’t you have a seat?”

David and Rachel took a place at the table and joined the debate.

Knight took up a position against the wall. “Is the ship safe with both you and David here?” he asked Phoebe.

“Yup, yup. He left Leah in charge. This was too important for me to stay behind.”

Several other officers also stood or sat around the rim of the room. He supposed the formation of a new republic was something everyone wanted to be part of.

“Look, McGregor,” one of the captains said, “we all know Hannah Hertz is leading reunification on your behalf.”

“Hannah’s no puppet,” David said.

“Be that as it may—she’ll follow where you lead. If you join us and convince her to do the same, the NER will have a real fighting chance.”

“Aye, maybe so. But the Angels are just as liable to strike down any kind of central government like this. While you’re building a symbol to unite mankind, they’ll be burning it down. How can I throw myself behind a venture that’s already doomed, like as not?”

“It’s not doomed,” Degana said. “We just have to make a stand and defend it.”

“You’re losing the whole bloody galaxy already. Four hundred systems are lost, as of this morning. And we want to help you, we truly do, but I’m not sure we’re prepared to stand up to the Ark. Much less a whole Angel fleet and the rest of the Sentinels.”

“So you’d have us continue to run and hide?” another captain asked. “Flee the Angels, flee Asherah, flee like cowards? We are Sentinels, McGregor.”

“Aye, and I’m not talking about courage, I’m talking about strategy.”

Rachel cleared her throat. “I guess the real question here is whether this republic will work. It sounds wonderful in theory, but we need to know it will grow into something we can support. These things so often become oligarchies of oppression.”

Like the damn Shadow Council. The few dictating to the many.

“So we elect a Synod,” Degana said. “Some independent worlds have already managed that. Maybe one representative for each system in the republic?”

Everyone at the table exchanged looks before it erupted into another stream of arguments. Some called for representation based on population. Others claimed the Sentinels should be placed in charge, considering the circumstances.

Something shimmered in the corner. A slight shifting of the light, a shadow that didn’t fall as it should have. Knight kept his eyes on the table, watching the spot from the corner of his eye. He couldn’t see anything, per se, but something was there. And now that he knew it, he could feel the creature watching. He reached out with his mind, feeling the shape of the room telekinetically. Humanoid shape, with a slight tail and an elongated snout. A Gog.

Knight twitched his hand and his pulse pistol popped from his thigh holster. Time slowed. A few heads turned toward him, catching the sound of his suit whirring. He jerked the pistol free and aimed at the creature. It started to move. Fast, but not fast enough. A series of pulses flew from his gun and tore into the chameleon thing. Blood exploded into the room, spattering those nearby.

In a heartbeat, several Sentinels had pulse pistols in hand, pointed at him. Others turned to see the now-dead Gog. Its chameleon effect faded, and the creature became visible. It was naked, covered in silvery scales now slick with blood.

Rachel clutched her chest, then shook her head. “Holy shit.”

“You know, lad,” David said, “it might have been useful to have it alive.”

David was wrong—better he acted with the element of surprise.

Another captain snorted. “A Gog would never give up its secrets. Even telepaths can’t usually pull anything. Damn things are too alien. Practically more animal than human.”

Rachel rose. “You’re all missing the point. The Gog are already on New Eden. That means the Angels could have intelligence on every decision you’ve ever made.”

A still silence filled the room.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-FIVE

April 30th

The answers Raziel gave me made too much sense. A war between Angels. Further evidence of their fallibility. They were just aliens, and aliens who made mistakes. Yet somehow, hearing him admit the sins of their pride makes me want to forgive them. Just a little. I keep thinking about what Raziel said about pride being the Angels’ greatest sin. I guess … maybe it was mine as well.

The Expanse of Nod was a realm of horror, a wasteland of lifeless worlds forbidden to mankind. Caleb had never intended to return, but sadly it had been the one place he could escape from the other Jericho ships. Apollo had turned Caleb’s whole damn company against him. He still couldn’t fathom how the void he’d let that happen.

This was the safest place he could find to meet Rebekah. Safe from Apollo and safe from Angels and their genocide. Of course, even here, Apollo had spies. But Caleb had confidence he could avoid the Sons of Cain. The Expanse was huge and they were few. They would never know where to look. And Rebekah would bring his family. Her transport should arrive in minutes.

They would finally be safe. Caleb would hold Ayelet and James and Miriam in his arms and never let them go. What a horrid fool he’d been to let them face danger. In his arrogance he’d thought to justify his actions on their behalf. And in so doing, he’d put them at risk.

“Sir,” the mercenary captain said, “the transport just exited the Conduit Gate.”

“Good. Prepare for docking.”

Caleb hurried off the bridge, toward the hold. The ship whirred beneath his feet as the docking bridge extended. He tried not to run, tried to seem dignified. That didn’t last long. He took the steps to the lower level three at a time and dashed for the hold.

The airlock buzzed open and Rebekah stepped out.

Caleb looked past her to spot his family.

She was alone.

“Wh-what? Rebekah, where are they?”

“I couldn’t bring kids to a place like this, Caleb. Don’t worry, they’ve been taken care of.”

“You were supposed to bring them here.” Ayelet was supposed to be in his arms. James and Miriam should be here. They were old enough to not need sheltering. “What the void, Rebekah?”

He spun on his heel and ran toward the nearest Mazzaroth screen.

“Caleb! I missed you—”

He paid her no mind. He’d speak to her later. First he needed to know where his wife was. He called up his personal access. “Contact Ayelet Gavet.”

The Mazzaroth delayed a split second as it connected to relays so far out. “Ayelet Gavet has been reported deceased in an explosion on Sepharvaim.”

No.

That wasn’t possible. He’d sent Rebekah to make sure they were safe. He’d sent her to reach them before Apollo. He’d … No. It was a mistake.

“Contact Miriam Gavet.”

“Miriam Gavet has been reported deceased in an explosion on Sepharvaim.”

Caleb’s chest heaved and he slumped against the wall. This could not be happening. It wasn’t possible. “Con-contact James … Gavet.”

“James Gavet  has been reported deceased in an—”

“Mazzaroth off!”

Caleb fell to his knees and vomited. His sides wouldn’t stop shaking. What had he done? What had he helped bring into this universe? Apollo was a monster, a servant of the Adversary. And Caleb had helped him. He’d allowed the fiend to put cybernetics into his own body. And he’d become a slave, complicit in the murder of his own family.

Rebekah had been too late … If only he’d sent her sooner instead of keeping her around for his own sake … if only he’d gone himself … Maybe …

She’d … she’d said they had been taken care of. Rebekah said his family had been taken care of.

His fists clenched, scraping against the metal grate beneath him. God in heaven. He’d thought she meant … Rebekah had allowed them to be murdered. It was the only explanation. She’d known. And she’d lied to him.

The woman herself slipped around the corner, her fiery hair swaying about her face in a way he’d once found too alluring. He felt his libido trying to kick in again, despite himself. But the feeling was alien, like it was being pressed in on him. He was nothing more than a disgusting animal.

Rebekah smiled at him and helped him to his feet.

Caleb slapped her.

She stumbled back, clutching her cheek.

“Why?” he shouted at her. “Why betray me?”

Rebekah rubbed her face, then sneered. “You chose her over me. Over me! After all I’ve done for you. You left me alone when you went to the Great Attractor. Then you sent me away to find her. You abandoned me. Me, Caleb. What did you think would happen?”

Petty jealousy? She’d allowed Apollo to murder his wife over that? Or had she been working with the bastard all along?

Caleb’s fist clenched at his side. “You psychotic bitch.” He took a swing at her.

Rebekah caught his fist in her hand. She shoved him and he stumbled backward, slipping and falling on his own vomit. The impact stung his ass, and he sat there stunned. What the void?

Rebekah backed away, toward the hold. “We could have been something wonderful, Caleb. Something worthy of songs of old. And you betrayed me for … for what? You thought I would stop him. Stop him? Do you know who he is?”

Caleb’s comm clicked on. “Sir, we need you on the bridge. The Serpent has appeared from the Gate.”

Ezra Dana. The Sons of Cain. They were here. How the void had they found him so quickly?

The answer was staring him in the face, framed by fiery orange hair. Rebekah shook her head and ran back into the hold. Toward to her own transport.

For a split second Caleb considered pursuing her and avenging Ayelet. Rebekah may not have killed his wife, but at the very least she’d allowed Apollo to do so. Maybe even informed him of Caleb’s plans. But he’d have to deal with her later. There was no time, and if he stayed here, Ezra would turn him over to Apollo as well.

He tapped his comm. “Captain, get us out of here. Lose them in the Conduit.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-SIX

May 3rd

Degana informed me the motion to elect a Synod passed. The Synod’s location will be kept secret for now, and carefully monitored against further Gog infiltration. Joining them was the only choice, really. If we are to have any chance against the Angels, it will be through the NER. Sadly, we don’t know how much the Angels already learned of our plans.

The Balaam had spent too long in the Conduit. Caleb’s mercenaries looked the worse for wear, as he himself felt. And the more time he spent in there, the more he felt the alien presence in his mind. Maybe Apollo could feel him. Maybe the chip in his brain was more than a chance to read his thoughts … Maybe it allowed the bastard to track him. Which likely meant no matter where he went, the Sons of Cain would follow. There was nowhere safe left in the universe and this ship was not equipped to fight pirates.

Caleb had lost.

He had gambled everything for money and power. And he had lost it all.

Ayelet had burned away in an explosion that took out their entire floor. His children were … Caleb wiped a tear from his face. He sat in his quarters, staring at old vids of them, as he had done from the moment they jumped into this system.

There was nothing here, of course. No terraformed worlds. No signs of life. Caleb still felt something watching him. Rumors claimed aliens could be found in the Expanse. Caleb knew better. The only alien life in the universe was the Angels themselves. They were parasites who fed on mankind’s hopes and fears.

On the vid, James was only four, and he chased his sister through a sprinkler system in the park. Like most trees on Sepharvaim, the leaves were cerulean. They blew in the wind as James ran, laughing.

Caleb looked down at the MAG in his lap. If he … If he had the guts he could end the pain. Maybe he would be with them all again. Maybe in heaven … except he wasn’t destined for heaven. Not with all he’d done.

He tossed the gun on the floor. It wasn’t courage.

He had lost. But he couldn’t let Apollo win. The bastard would unmake the universe before he was done. Even Angels were better than that.

“Mazzaroth,” he said. “Contact Rachel Jordan.” Maybe Caleb couldn’t do anything more himself. And maybe it was sad he could think of no one else to stand up to Apollo. But she was his last hope.

After a few minutes, Rachel flashed onto the screen. “Caleb Gavet. I thought you … Well, after your last transmission cut off, I thought you were dead.”

“No, I—not yet. Soon, probably.”

“Where are you?”

“In the Expanse. That doesn’t matter now. Listen to me, Rachel. There are things you need to know about the Angels and the Adversary. I’m not sure how much time I have left. I’ve made some terrible mistakes. There’s a scientist who worked for Jericho. He’s taken over the company now, but he’s not a man at all.”

The ship lurched from a sudden impact and the screen cut off. An explosion rocked the hull and Caleb fell to the ground. Someone was shooting at them.

He tapped his comm, but the signal was dead. The ship had lost all communications in the first barrage. Caleb pushed himself up and ran for the bridge.

More explosions echoed down the corridor before he reached it. MAG rounds punched through the hull right behind Caleb. He looked over his shoulder at the multiple breaches. Jets of oxygen sucked out of the ship with stomach-turning hissing.

He kept running, but stumbled when he reached the bridge as another explosion shook the ship.

“It’s the Serpent,” the captain said. “They’ve launched docking cables. We’re being pulled in.”

So the pirates intended to board them rather than blow them away. Caleb wasn’t sure whether that was better or worse.

“Get your men to the hold with MAG rifles. When they try to come aboard, take them down.”

“Sir. Even if we could defeat the boarding party, we cannot escape.”

“We can if we turn the tables and take their ship. Get down there now!”

The captain nodded, then ordered his men down.

Caleb followed behind them, stopping only to grab a MAG himself. He was no expert shot, but he’d go down fighting.

His men had formed up behind crates and doorways only seconds before the airlock blew. Pirates streamed from the breach, MAGs in hand. Caleb stayed low, peering around a corner into the hold. Best leave the fighting to the professionals for as long as possible.

Shots rang out all around. A pirate vaulted over a crate and shot one of Caleb’s men. Caleb tried to shoot the bastard, but his shots went wide. The pirate dove behind cover, and Caleb heard a man scream.

Shit.

It was so hard to tell what was going on in the chaos, but it didn’t look good.

“Fall back!” he shouted.

A handful of his soldiers did, slipping back into the hall with him. Caleb didn’t have enough men to do this. He retreated further and further, but the Sons of Cain just kept coming. The man beside Caleb fell to a MAG round through his chest.

Rebekah stepped around the corner. She wore a nanomesh vest like the pirates, and carried a MAG.

Caleb leveled his MAG at her chest. From this range, even he could hit her. “You’re going to pay for what you’ve done, bitch.”

She twisted her hand and his MAG jerked out of his grasp as if she’d reached five meters and grabbed it.

Caleb’s jaw fell. She was … telekinetic? She was a Psych?

“I’m much more than that, Caleb,” she said.

She opened her vest and let it fall to the floor, then slipped out of her shirt. Did she think to seduce him still? Did she think he would …

Rebekah arched her back and wings erupted from it.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-SEVEN

May 6th

I thought I could single-handedly save the holy universe from itself. I thought I could open mankind’s eyes to the blindness they’d embraced. And even Knight—of all people, Knight!—accused me of arrogance. I didn’t see it. But I was as blind as any Angel.

All his life Knight had lived on the edge of the Expanse. He’d heard the stories. It was filled with pirates and monsters and aliens and the Adversary itself. It was the end of civilization and the beginning of the void. Appropriate enough, considering the nature of Gehenna, though he’d never put too much stock in such stories.

Still, he’d not thought to visit the place himself. It was forbidden.

In a way, that was reason enough to do it. Never be where the enemy expected. The first principle of any Gibborim.

Besides, Rachel had insisted. And, to Knight’s surprise, David had agreed to bring the Sephirot here, looking for Gavet.

Knight walked the halls as they jumped from system to system, searching. The crew said almost nothing, but Knight caught the looks they gave each other. Fear. Even Sentinels were afraid to tread here. They were the ones who walked the black of space to protect mankind from any threat. And they were scared of the Expanse. Was that superstition, or did they know something he didn’t?

Rachel had tried to help him develop empathic abilities. She seemed to think as Nephilim he’d have those. Knight wasn’t sure he wanted to share the emotions of those around him.

He slipped onto the bridge, and a few crewmen turned to look at him, as if startled by even the sound of the doors. Phoebe blew him a covert kiss and he smiled back at her. She was the strangest person he’d ever met. And amazing.

Despite his rank, Knight was always a bit out of place on the bridge. He was most at home with a sword—or gun—in his hand, in the midst of a firefight. He’d learned the operations of the ship, but he had no specific role up here, and David had made no move to assign him one. Even the captain seemed to realize Knight was most useful leading a strike force, not running any ship systems.

“I’ve picked up a scanner shadow darting around the asteroid field,” Rachel said. “Other scanners might not even read it.”

“Aye, then let’s have a closer look,” David said.

Whatever Gavet had to tell Rachel, Knight hoped it was worth the trip, and the endless scouring of this desolate place.

Knight folded his arms and leaned against the back wall. Best to just stay out of the way until he was needed. It would be soon.

The asteroid field came into view on the screen as David flew closer.

“That’s definitely a ship,” Rachel said. “Flexible segments joined together. Unusual design.”

“Anyone out here is like to be up to no good,” David said. “So let’s say hello.”

Asteroids flashed by as the captain accelerated, weaving in and out of them. The ship on-screen took off, fleeing deeper into the field. It was agile, apparently able to easily change directions.

“We’re going to lose them if they keep that up,” Rachel said.

“Aye. Get their attention, Phoebe. MAGs only.”

“Yup, yup. One slap in the face, coming up.”

The MAG cannons retorted, blowing through asteroids and splitting them into thousands of smaller ones—ones too small to cause much damage to the hull as long as the kinetics held. Some of the shots caught the fleeing snake-ship and it vanished from the screen.

“What was that?” David said. “I meant scare them.”

“I, uh …” Phoebe said. “They just disappeared.”

“No,” Rachel said. “I’ve got them off the stern, slinking away. They’ve got stealth tech similar to Raziel’s ship. That must have been a hologram you shot.”

They could do that—create a hologram of an entire ship? Was that Asheran tech? If so, it would likely be a problem.

“Cute,” David said. “Cut them off. Light pulse cannon fire.”

The Sephirot came about. A few pulse blasts obliterated the asteroids separating the two ships. Pulses grazed the pirates, scorching their hull without breaching it. Phoebe was a damn fine shot.

Apparently they got the message, because the ship turned about and held position.

“Phoebe,” David said, “Lead a party. Take them alive if possible.”

“Yup, yup. Come on, ninja boy,” she said. She tapped her comm and ordered several Sentinel assault units to the hangar.

“Do we expect resistance?” Knight asked her, as they rode the lift.

“Probably. Pirates don’t generally like being boarded. They prefer to do the boarding. And plundering. Not that we’ll be plundering, of course.”

Knight fingered the hilt of his kyoketsu. David wanted these pirates alive. Best to do this without weapons, then.

They met the other troops in the hangar and filed into shuttles and boarding pods.

Knight strapped into a shuttle beside Phoebe. “Hey,” he said. “Be careful.”

“Awww. That’s so sweet. Darling all looking out for me, pretending I’m not a total badass.”

“Last time you got shot.”

She snorted. “Yup, well, those were Sentinels. We were all badasses, all right?”

And seeing her like that had been the scariest moment of his life. But she was a soldier, and she was right … He’d couldn’t go into this worrying about her.

She winked at him, then formed her helmet. Knight did the same.

The pirates opened the hangar for the shuttle. Convenient. Knight supposed they realized refusing would just result in them blowing out hull breaches.

“Ready?” Phoebe asked.

Knight nodded and they popped the hatch. He dove out and rushed forward.

MAG shots retorted around the hangar in an instant. Knight rolled to the side, kicked off the floor, and jumped to the wall. From there he kicked again and landed in the midst of a trio of pirates. They tried to level their MAGs at him. Not fast enough.

He swept a man’s legs and caught a woman in the jaw with an uppercut at the same time. Both went down. Before the third man could level his gun, Knight kicked it, pinning it to the wall. Then he leapt in the air and back-kicked the man with his other leg, sending him flying. Knight dropped down and punched the man he’d tripped.

Three incapacitated. None dead.

He turned to check on Phoebe. She rolled forward, evading fire, then came up shooting her pulse pistol. Blasts took out attackers, one in the shoulder, the other in the leg. She rose, running straight at another group. MAG rounds ricocheted off her armor.

A pirate swung a pipe at her when she neared. She caught his arm and dropped him with a chop to the ribs, grabbed the falling pipe, and slammed it into another man’s knee. She continued her momentum, caught a man around the shoulder and flipped him, flinging him hard onto the ground.

Knight nodded at her. Not bad.

“See?” she said with a shrug. “Now which one of us is more badass?”

Knight snorted and continued down the hall. “Not even a question.”

“Damn straight.” She trotted after him. “Hey, wait. You did mean me, right?”

More pirates tried to hold them off. Knight kicked around the rails and walls, using the environment as a shield to close in. There was always a way in. He slammed a man’s head against the wall. Telekinetically he reached out and snatched two pirates’ guns.

An Icie with an eye patch came up, MAG readied. Knight caught his arm and twisted, and the gun clattered away. He turned, pulling the man to his knees. The Icie screamed as his joint pressed the wrong way.

“Ezra?” Phoebe said.

What? Her brother? Her parents had mentioned the man had gone pirate. Damn. Knight shoved the Icie toward Phoebe.

She caught him, looked him in the eye, and shook her head. Knight couldn’t see her face because of the helmet. Phoebe socked her brother across the jaw and the young man fell.

“Knight, bring him back to the Sephirot.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll help secure the rest of the ship. Won’t take long.”

Knight shifted his weight. Debating her was probably pointless. But letting her walk into danger without him … No. She was a highly trained spec ops Sentinel. He had to trust her.

He slung the unconscious man over his shoulders and carried him back to the shuttle. He locked Ezra in the back.

Ten minutes later, Phoebe returned.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

She tapped her suit to release the helmet and turned to look at him, her eyes red. Had she been crying? God, what should he say? He’d never had brothers or sisters. How was he supposed to manage for her?

He removed his own helmet and took over control of the shuttle. He was no expert pilot, but he was learning, and she was clearly not in any shape to fly.

“So … he was really out here, huh?”

“I guess.”

“I’m sorry, Phoebe. I know it must be hard to find him like this.”

“I think that’s a cybernetic patch.”

Knight had seen that too. “Yeah. You know … They’re not all bad. Asherans with implants, I mean. They’re just people who abandoned the Covenant. They can still be … They’re still people.”

She rubbed her face and Knight flew the shuttle back toward the Sephirot.

“Hey, Knight,” she said after a minute. “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“Oh … everything.”

“So I’m not an ass anymore?”

She smiled. “I didn’t say that. But I love you. I was thinking maybe we … Maybe we should have some babies.” She turned away at that and ran her fingers through her pink hair, as if embarrassed.

Knight felt a bit flush, too. He’d wanted children for so long. And then Rachel had made him question whether he wanted it just because he was told to. But it didn’t matter why he wanted it. What mattered was he did now, in each moment. And Phoebe was the One. He knew that now, without any doubt. Sometimes he’d thought about what he might have had with Shirin, had she lived. Maybe they would have escaped and raised a family together. But that was another lifetime, a distant memory. A sadness that might never completely fade, but had been filled with a warmth he’d never known.

“You mean that?”

“Yup, yup. I … um …” She turned back to him, and smiled, her teal eyes shining.

“You mean now?”

“Uh, think we’d better wait until we get back to one of our quarters, big guy.”

“Right.” Of course. Obviously. Not like they’d never had sex on a shuttle before. Just not with her brother locked in the next room.

He reached over to take her hand.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-EIGHT

But if I can forgive Raziel now that he’s admitted the sin … maybe I deserve the same. If I have been arrogant, I have done so with the best intentions. I still have the best intentions.

David had insisted Caleb be restrained in the brig. Rachel didn’t really blame him. Caleb Gavet had been their enemy a lot more often than he’d been their ally, if he even was now. The man was duplicitous, lecherous, and a prick. But he knew things, and if he was willing to share, she needed that information.

They’d taken the entire crew of the Serpent prisoner, which apparently included Phoebe’s own brother. Leah was now seeing to injuries some of the pirates had sustained.

Rachel opened the door to Caleb’s cell and moved to stand in front of him. She doubted she had anything to fear from this man. Not anymore. He had the look of one broken by the weight of too heavy a burden. Too much loss. He sat with his head in his hands.

She still couldn’t read his emotions. By the look of him, she was probably lucky for that.

“Gavet.”

He looked up at her. “I didn’t know you’d come.”

“Twice you tried to tell me things, and twice you got cut off. So tell me.”

He chewed his thumb a moment before leaning back against his cell wall. “Did you … did you capture a woman with orange hair?”

Rachel nodded. She had seen someone like that. She pulled out a tablet and glanced through a prisoner manifest. “Yeah. Rebekah Norris. Your assistant, she claimed.”

“She was. She’s … God, she’s an Angel.”

Wow. That little girl? Rachel had been right—other Angels were hiding in plain sight. Raziel had said they could retract their wings … between that and telepathy they could disguise their nature.

“Whose side is she on?”

Caleb sighed and shook his head. “There’s this scientist working for Jericho—running it now, really. I thought he was an Asheran. He knew all about cybernetics. Now I think he must be like her. She was helping him.”

Well, shit. How many of these hidden Angels were out there? So now an Angel was running Jericho Corp. Not much chance of finding allies there.

“So Rebekah is a foe, then. We’ll have her moved to the isolation wing.”

“Apollo murdered my family, Rachel.”

God. Rachel was glad she didn’t have to feel his emotions. That chip Leah found in his head blocked her, and for once, that might be a boon to her. She sat down on the cot beside him and put her arm around his shoulders. “I’m sorry, Caleb.”

No wonder the man had given up on life.

Apollo. That name sounded familiar.

“Apollo …?”

“The Angel running Jericho.”

Angel. Apollo … “Apollyon …”

“What?”

“Raziel said that a fallen Angel named Apollyon betrayed them. Caused the Vanishing. An Angel serving the Adversary.”

“Fuck me. And I helped him.”

Which must mean Rebekah was also one of the fallen. If Raziel was here now … No. She couldn’t afford to depend on the Angel. She was always preaching for humanity to stand on its own. Well, here they were. Her and David and Knight and the others. And Caleb? Could she trust him? She couldn’t read his emotions, but if he wasn’t sincere, he was the best actor she’d ever met.

“Look, we’re heading back to the Milky Way, Caleb. The Angels are trying to take out the NER.”

“The what?”

“New Eden Republic. We’ve been trying to start an independent government.”

Caleb shrugged out from her arm and turned directly to face her. “Rachel, listen to me. What I’ve been trying to tell you … None of this political shit matters anymore. The Angels built space stations, okay. One of them was out at the Great Attractor. I went there.”

She scoffed. That was too far and there were no known routes beyond the Local Group.

He shook his head as if reading her mind. “He told me the way. And I found an Angel station there. I thought … I thought they were trying to harness the power of the black hole. God, Rachel, I was so wrong. The stations weren’t created to harness anything. They were created to lock it away from this universe.”

She leaned forward. “To lock what away, Caleb?”

“The Adversary.”

It wasn’t in this universe? “So … the Adversary lives in another universe.”

“No, Rachel.” Caleb rubbed his forehead. “The Adversary is another universe. A sentient universe of hatred, bent on the utter destruction of the Angels.”

Rachel sat speechless, unable to get her mouth to work. A sentient universe. That was impossible. Nothing on that kind of scale could be alive. It was off rotation nonsense. Caleb was traumatized. His mind had created delusions …

But Rachel had seen it. It had touched her mind. Terrible, alien hatred. Unfathomably ancient and vast. She had touched it when they breached the Conduit.

Man Shall Adhere to the Bounds of the Conduit.

And they had violated the Second Commandment. They had seen another universe. Had she borne witness to the Adversary itself? The ultimate foe of the Angels?

“Rachel … These Angel stations were created as seals to lock away the Adversary, you understand? Dimensional barriers to keep the universes apart. Apollo had me destroying them, four so far. And I think he’s brought down others on his own. I think … I don’t think many of these seals are left.”

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. “What happens when the last seal breaks?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. I guess … the Adversary will have access to this universe again.”

Holy. Shit.

Rachel rose. She had to get this information to David. She had to … to face the terrible truth.

She had no idea what to do.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FORTY-NINE

May 8th

Seals are all that keep the Adversary from this universe. Seals that bind the Angel’s enemies in another reality. I find the concept a little hard to wrap my mind around.

Caleb didn’t mind being back in the brig. At least in here he could do no more harm. Except that, in here, he could do nothing but think. He paced the cell. There was no escape. Not from here. Not from the visions that seeped into his mind the instant he let down his guard. The sights mankind was never meant to see. The hostile universe, bent on consuming his very soul. The hatred stretching down through the ages, reaching back to before the human race even existed.

The vile sickness that had consumed his heart and devoured that which he held most precious. Ayelet. James. Miriam.

Taken because of Apollo and the Adversary. Lost because of Caleb’s own selfish arrogance and ambition.

And still the voices spoke in his mind. They called to him. Demanded he obey—promised him solace. An end to his suffering if only he submitted. Not in words—not exactly. Rather it was like a serpent, slithering through his mind, constricting his lungs. Hissing at him of his only chance at peace.

Be silent.

Caleb shrieked and beat his fists against the wall.

Ayelet.

James.

Miriam.

He pounded until his hands bled. No one would hear. The cell was soundproof unless the smart glass was switched to be permeable. Exhausted, he slumped to the floor, dragging a streak of blood along the wall.

Rachel came most days. His only solace.

“I can’t release you,” she’d said.

“I don’t deserve release …”

But she brought him news. David McGregor had become a leader in this New Eden Republic, jaunting around the galaxies, trying to recruit more member systems. The man’s fame spread almost as fast as that Nephilim who worked for him. Thousands flocked to his banner …

It might have seemed a new hope for humanity.

If the Angels weren’t running around behind his back destroying or conquering half the worlds he enlisted. If Asherah wasn’t sweeping up vast swathes of territory Sentinels could no longer defend.

Well, Caleb wished McGregor all the luck in the universe. The man didn’t understand what was really out there. Rachel had told him, Caleb knew, but still … No one could understand until they had felt it.

The smart glass opened, and he turned to see that Amphie doctor entering. What was her name? Leah Suzuki?

Caleb should have had a charming witticism to throw at her. Nothing came. He just stared at her numbly.

She sighed and knelt beside him. “They told me you injured yourself. You didn’t think you’d claw your way out of the cell, right?”

Caleb shook his head, slowly.

The doctor took his hands in hers and injected something into them. A rush of air against his skin, then he felt the nanobot regenerators begin to knit his split flesh back together. It itched, tingled.

A few seconds later Suzuki pulled a cloth from a compartment in her suit and wiped away the blood. “Don’t do that again, Mr. Gavet.”

His hands were good as new. If only the rest of him were so easy to repair. If only his heart and mind and soul could be treated with a simple injection.

The Amphie sighed and rose. “I’d say you got what you deserved … But Rachel told me what happened to your family. No one deserves that. I can give you something to help you sleep, if you need.”

“No!” Dear God. In sleep he was defenseless. The Adversary crept into his mind whispering its promises and threats and illusions. Wrapping them around his fragile psyche until all he could do was weep like a child. “No. No sleep. No sleep, Suzuki. A stimulant … Can you give me a stim?”

“I … don’t think that would be a very good idea.”

Caleb chuckled, or tried to. It came out as a pathetic wheeze. The doctor only saw the medical angle. There was no cure for the human soul.

“Thank you,” he said.

She nodded. “I’ll, uh … I’ll have them send you some tea, then.”

Tea. Great. That should definitely save his soul.

He smiled at her and she left.

Poor Caleb.

The voice echoed in his mind, soothing and full of pity. At first he thought Apollo had reached out across the stars to torment him … But he knew that voice. Rebekah.

“How are you doing this?”

I’ve always touched you, love.

She was an Angel. A damned telepath. Like Apollo. That was how he’d done all this. And Rebekah … She’d been in his mind … all along? Even with the anti-telepathy chip? Apollo must have left loop holes for himself and his minions.

Of course, my sweet.

She always knew just what he needed. She always knew exactly how to turn him on. To turn him away from his wife. She was like all his other little affairs, except he could never cast her aside.

Because I love you.

“Shut up! You love nothing, monster! You turned on my family! You claim to love me, but you let them die. That’s not love—it is the grossest of betrayal.”

Caleb … I had no choice.

God, she’d manipulated him from the day they met. He’d thought he was using her. But it was the other way around. She was no innocent nineteen-year-old girl … She was a succubus sent to lead him astray. She and Apollo had helped him rise through the ranks of Jericho Corp. Ensuring they had a puppet on the throne.

Please, Caleb. Forgive me. I did what I had to.

“Go to Hell, Rebekah. If that’s even your name.”

My name … was Naamah. And I … You don’t understand, Caleb. I didn’t have a choice. Apollyon is my master. We cannot control the Beast. We cannot live without the implants.

Naamah. Had he heard the name before? Maybe if he’d paid more attention in history class he’d know. Void, Rachel probably would. Was it possible she meant what she said? That she truly loved him? Or could this be yet one more manipulation?

But … It seemed she had nothing left to gain by it.

He was broken. Powerless.

As she claimed to be. Powerless to fight against Apollo and his commands. Powerless against the Beast. Because of her implants … The cybernetics?

Which explained why he was as damned as she was.

Caleb …

“Stay out of my head!”

He beat his fists on the floor until his strength was spent, then collapsed onto his arms.

And he wept.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY

May 9th

A war among Angels divided them between those who had joined the Adversary and those who sought to continue to rule the universe.

Knight sat with his back pressed against the wall, Phoebe in his arms, leaning against his chest. They were naked, and the extreme heat of her body was like a sauna, relaxing away all the tension in his muscles.

“I’ve been thinking,” she said.

“Mmm.”

“How about Ekron? My family is there. We could afford a nice condo, something with a view.”

Knight rubbed his hands over her shoulders. So smooth. So hot. He dipped his fingers lower, to trace a line around her nipple. “You want to settle down?”

“Yup, I think so. And if you don’t stop that, you’d better be prepared to finish what you’re starting, or I’ll make you pay for it.”

He laughed and kissed her ear. Once, he had dreamed of retiring to New Rome. But it was gone, and one day he would need to find a home. But Ekron … was a ball of ice. What the void would he do there?

“It’s kind of cold, Phoebe.”

“Yup. But I’ll keep you warm.”

Sounded pleasant enough. “Rachel and David still need our help.”

Phoebe snorted and jerked free of his grasp, then scooted away to face him. “Really? You have to go running every time they say so? Can you think about our own future for one second, Knight?”

He leaned his head back. “Future? Ekron is in the NER. You know sooner or later the Angels will come for it. Unless David wins, our home would be …”

“Haven’t we done enough?”

Had they? He’d fought his whole life, and for what? Even following Rachel around, aiding her crusade, he wasn’t sure he could say the universe was a better place. He was a better person—he had to believe that—but sometimes it just seemed like they’d fucked things up even worse.

“I don’t know,” he said.

She folded her arms and stuck out her lip. “We said we were going to make babies.”

Probably his best plan ever.

And maybe it was time. Maybe he had done enough … But how could he leave like this? How could he leave Rachel and David to face such threats without him? He owed it to them to see this through to the end.

“I’ll talk to Rachel. Maybe we can just take some time.”

“Fine. Better than nothing, I guess.” She rose and began pulling her clothes back on.

Knight sighed and did the same, then left to hunt down Rachel.

He found her in the mess hall, staring at a tablet, fingers hopelessly entwined in her hair.

Knight sat across from her, and she looked up.

“Hey. Glad you’re here,” she said. “I’ve got something I need you to do.”

“Well, I—”

“David and I learned some things from Caleb, Knight. About the Angels, about the Adversary … I need the truth now. All of it. Without that we won’t be able to decide how to face things. We need to find out who the Angels really are and what the Adversary really is.”

“You told me it was another universe.” Which would have made absolutely no sense if he hadn’t seen the thing himself. Knight was no scientist, and his education was limited. He knew nothing about theories of the Conduit, and until he’d met Rachel, had never even considered the idea of other universes. But there was something out there, beyond the reality he knew. And it was not pleasant.

“It is. And Raziel has to know more about it than that. He’s been keeping secrets for far too long. It’s become force of habit for him. It’s time that changed. Humans are no longer children in need of protection.”

Maybe she was right. Maybe the Angels had done all they had done because they thought of mankind as children. They had tried to protect humanity from the terrible truths they could not understand and the horrors they could not face. Like the truth about Eden.

But if the Angels were no longer the defenders of humanity, Sentinels had to be. He’d sworn an oath as a Sentinel. He’d promised to become a guardian against the night … He who had once been one of those very threats in the darkness.

“I … Phoebe and I were planning a trip to Ekron.”

Rachel waved her hand. “Okay, sure. But first I need you to go to Gadara and meet Raziel, Knight.”

“Gadara.”

“He’s there, and frankly, I’d like him back here with us. We need to have a long chat.”

“So call him on the fucking Mazzaroth.”

“I doubt I’ll convince him to open up except in person. And David is too busy protecting NER worlds and recruiting more to take the Sephirot to Gadara. But he said he could arrange to meet the Wake of Stars this afternoon. Hannah could take you there.”

Knight ran a hand over his hair. It had begun to grow out, and he wasn’t sure whether he’d have Phoebe buzz it again. He clucked his tongue. “Phoebe and I were hoping to take a break from all this …”

Or, she was.

And he could not blame her. This ship was no place to raise a family.

“Knight. I need you. You’re the only one I know I can trust with this kind of thing.”

Funny. He was the one people used to trust to maim and murder. Now he was the only one they trusted to save the holy universe. Void. He had become something beyond what he had ever dreamed of. A Sentinel.

And Rachel was right. People did need him. It was bigger than his own hopes and dreams. Even those he shared with Phoebe. Besides, after all Rachel had done for him, he could not let her down. Not ever.

“All right, Rachel. I’ll get ready.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-ONE

May 10th

Ironic that I begin to find myself sympathetic to the Adversary itself. They had tried to wipe out Eden, and that remains unforgivable. And yet … How far would I have gone to win freedom from the Angels?

The Wake of Stars was a Sentinel battleship, one of the few loyal to the New Eden Republic. As such, it was returning to Eden, protecting it against any incursion by Angels or Asherah. But Gadara was a short trek through the Conduit from Eden, so Hannah Hertz had agreed to drop Knight off on her way back.

And Phoebe, who had insisted on coming.

Had she fought David over it? Or maybe the Calnehian had freely let his first officer go. He was the kind of man who understood matters of the heart and family.

Hertz had given them an executive suite to share. Pretty posh, considering they weren’t even captains or diplomats. The room had a small lounge with a comfortable couch forming a semicircle around a table. Knight reclined there, feet on the table, trying to focus on the tablet displaying Gadara.

Last damn planet in the holy universe he wanted to see.

Of course Raziel owned the whole fucking system, so it didn’t surprise Knight he was there … But of all the people and all the places …

Phoebe slipped into the booth beside him. “You all right?”

“Yeah.”

“Yup, yup. I’m just fine, Phoebe,” she said, flapping her hand like a mouth and talking in a deeper voice. “Sure I don’t mind visiting the planet I was tortured on to meet the man who did it. Oh,” she returned to her normal voice, “well that’s big of you, Knight. Awfully considerate of Rachel to take that into account, wasn’t it?”

“Phoebe—”

“Why yes,” she said in the deep voice again, “I’m quite certain she took my feelings into account. She’s an empath, after all. And clearly always right. About every little fucking thing.”

“Hey!” He shoved her shoulder. “I don’t sound like that. And anyway, I’m sure she thought about it … She just needs me.”

“Yup, yup. She’s a real needy girl. But uh, hmm, you know … I need you, too! And which one of us is trying to have your baby? Huh? Is it Rachel? You know, I don’t think it is.”

Shit. He’d known she wouldn’t be happy about delaying their trip to Ekron, but he’d hoped she would understand. “It’s not like that, Phoebe.”

“What’s it like then, baby? ‘Cause from where I’m sitting, kinda seems like every time she needs anything, no matter how off rotation, you jump. You put yourself at risk for her every whim. You put our future at risk. You still lusting after her, ninja boy? Still thinking maybe you need to spread your seed around a bit more freely?”

“No!” He had chosen Phoebe. Couldn’t she see he loved her? God, why did she have to be like this? Rachel was just … Rachel. There was no more romance between them. No more sexual tension.

“Yup, well maybe you should have just fucked her once and got it out of your system.”

Knight flinched before he could control the reflex.

“Wh-what was that? Oh. My. God. You did sleep with her.” Phoebe stood and stared down at him. “You fucked her. Was it good?” He was pretty sure he shouldn’t answer that. “Be-before or after me, Knight?”

“Before I ever met you.”

“Oh well, at least there’s that. So you love her, too, huh?”

Knight rose to stand beside her and look down into her eyes. He’d never seen her behave like this before. He’d always known she had a chip on her shoulder, but this was … “I do not love Rachel. Not the way I love you. And don’t act like you haven’t had other lovers before me, either.”

“I never offered to have any of their babies!”

Well … He had wanted a baby with Rachel … But that was a long time ago. “I chose you. I only want you.”

Phoebe snorted, then narrowed her eyes, staring back into his. “So why do you have to do everything she says?”

“Because I believe in her. Whatever mistakes she’s made, she’s made them for the right reasons. And I am the person I am today because of her. Try to understand, Phoebe. You know me. And you know me better than this.”

She clenched her jaw, then punched his shoulder. After a moment she slumped against him, throwing her arms around his waist. “I know … I’m sorry. I just … why did it have to be us?”

“You know how busy David was. And Rachel needed someone she could trust. I guess she figured I could handle just about any situation.”

She laughed against his chest. “Yup, yup. That’s my ninja boy. Walk straight into danger like nothing can touch you.”

That’s what he did. That’s who he was.

But Phoebe had almost died on the Tabernacle.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he said. “I’m not going to lose you.”

“I was about to say the same thing.” She ran her hands along his back, and he shut his eyes from the soothing motion. “Knight …” she said after a while. “Rachel and David got married. That was kind of nice, you know? Old fashioned, but nice.”

“Yeah. Quaint.”

“So … You don’t believe in marriage?”

He chuckled and pushed her away to look in her face. “I’ve found a single woman to spend my life with. I don’t need a piece of paper to tell the universe that. My own decision is enough.”

She bobbed her head and shrugged. “Sure. Yup, of course.”

Knight watched her as she walked away, to go grab a drink from the fridge. It wasn’t her nature to act so insecure. Not about Rachel. Not about anything. Which meant something had pierced her armor … Not just the wounds she sustained on the Tabernacle. A fear about Knight and Rachel. But he hadn’t given her reason to fear that … Not since they’d been together.

So maybe someone else had.

When he approached, she handed him a glass of water. “Sorry,” she said again. “And I don’t say that often, so you’d better savor it. Maybe mark it in a journal so you can look back on it and remember. You know, down the road when you’re wanting to hear it again but you won’t.”

“Someone betrayed you before,” he said. “Someone you were serious with.”

She sighed. “Your empathic powers finally coming in? Damn Psychs.”

“No. Not really.” Other than fleeting sensations, confusing rushes he couldn’t make sense of, he had no empathic or telepathic gifts. He was an imperfect Nephilim, he supposed.

“So you just read me. Even better. David was right.”

He put a hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to tell me, Phoebe. You just have to know I’m not him. Whatever happened before, I’m not going to make the same mistake.”

“No. I expect you’ll make all new ones. Excessive mistakes so blindly stupid I’ll be struck speechless.”

“That would be a thing to see.”

“All right, enough of that,” she said. “Time to do your duty.”

“What?”

“Come on, big guy. Baby-making. Get with the picture.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-TWO

Whatever they may have once been, the Angels have made themselves our enemies. They will not compromise. They will not even consider us equals. They know only domination. And to that, we can have only two responses. Submit or fight. I am tired of submission.

The two emerging Angel ships looked like miniature versions of the Ark. Sleek black, organic hulls that shimmered in the starlight. Much like the Sephirot itself.

David brought his ship around to meet the pair. A trio of Sentinel cruisers flanked the Sephirot, lending support. Forming a wall between the Angels and the planet beyond.

Calneh. The world of David’s birth. He’d come to New Rome as a young man, but he still remembered the thick acrid skies of his homeworld. The festive pipe music men played after work. The sound of pubs filled with laughter.

And the Angels had to know. He couldn’t believe it was coincidence they would choose this planet for a strike. Not a place with such a middling population.

No. His enemies knew who he was and they were targeting him. Two Angel ships were more than enough to render a planet lifeless.

They thought they knew who he was.

He was about to show them just how wrong they were.

“Signal the cruisers to take the Angel ship to starboard. We’ll take the other one. Prep antiproton cannons, but lead with a missile barrage. All tubes. On my mark.”

He eased the Sephirot toward the Angels. They were on a steady approach. Not intimidated by a mere four human ships. They had come to destroy another entire planet.

Not this one.

David was drawing a line.

Not. This. One.

He began accelerating toward the Angel ship. Pushing the engines for all they had. It approached rapidly. David banked away, bringing the Sephirot for a broadside run.

“Fire! Fire all missiles.”

Two hundred missile tubes launched their payloads, filling the sky and his screen with antimatter warheads. As expected, the Angels concentrated on the missiles. Plasma toroids the size of asteroids took out whole swathes of the attack.

“Fire the antiproton cannons.”

The lights dimmed on the ship as the cannons drew vast amounts of energy. The ship bucked from the sudden discharge. A pair of beams appeared, slamming into the Angel hull at the speed of light. Antimatter explosions rippled over the other ship, tearing away its skin. Atmosphere vented.

An Angel was sucked into space and flew by the view screen.

The antiproton cannons cut off as the Sephirot strafed by. David twisted as sharply as he could, bringing the ship around for another pass.

“MAGs.” Time to tear up the insides they had just opened.

“Mac!” Rachel said. “I’m reading a power up from the Angel—”

Plasma bolts slammed into the Sephirot. David banked away, trying to get clear. Giant toroids exploded against the hull and directly in front of the bow. David couldn’t turn that sharply. Which forced him to fly right into the plasma blasts.

Bloody void. He’d thought the buggers wouldn’t be able to get their systems up again so fast after the antiprotons.

“Missile tubes reloaded, sir,” his new weapons officer said.

“Prepare another barrage.” They might not fall for the same trick twice, but every missile they targeted was a shot not directed at the Sephirot.

“We’ve lost one of our cruisers,” Rachel said.

Shite. He needed to finish this foe off quickly or his remaining allies would be dead before he got there.

“I’m taking us in for the same vector as before. Fire all missiles, then concentrate pulse cannon fire on the hull breaches.”

“Sir, they’ll also be able to target our breaches if we—”

“I know that, ensign. We don’t have time to play it safe.”

He brought the Sephirot around for another pass, diving underneath the Angel ship. Missiles filled the air again, then pulse fire. Pulses tore into the Angel ship, ripping through the weaker interior, thanks to the hull breaches.

The Angels returned fire. Warnings flared all over David’s console. Plasma fires had spread through three decks. Seven, eight hull breaches. One of the hangars blew out.

David pushed closer. They had to do this. They had to show the damn Angels they would not submit.

“Fire! Fire everything we’ve got left.”

MAGs and pulse cannons ripped into the Angel ship. It rocked, rippled, and imploded like a bubble folding in on itself.

David banked away as sharply as he could. Somewhere behind him a console blew out, spewing sparks over the bridge.

“Cut power to that!”

He steered back toward the remaining Angel ship.

“Can we bring up the antiproton cannons?”

“No, sir,” the ensign said. “We’ve lost too much power.”

“Ion cannons?”

“One of them.”

“Power it up.”

“Sir.”

Another Sentinel cruiser was adrift, and the last looked hard-pressed. But they were not alone.

“Missiles. Get their attention.”

Missiles had the best range, though from this far out, the Angels had plenty of time to shoot down a barrage. It didn’t matter. He just needed to buy a few seconds to close the distance.

The Sephirot launched another volley, but his console showed only about three quarters of the tubes firing. He tapped, revealing the problem. Some entire tubes had been blown off the ship. Bloody void. There was no way to fix that without putting into space dock.

“Mac!” Rachel said. “They’re retreating.”

Even as she spoke, he saw it. The Angel ship shot down the missile barrage, but began fleeing toward the Conduit Gate.

A murmur ran through the bridge. The crew whispered in awe. They had just driven away an Angel attack.

The murmur grew into a whoop. Men and women clapped and cheered. David raised his hands, palms up, encouraging them.

Let them have their moment.

They had lost a lot of brothers and sisters-in-arms this day. Soon they would mourn those losses. But for now, they had won.

They had beaten an Angel assault. And he was going to make damn sure the entire holy universe knew about it.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-THREE

May 11th

David has broadcast the battle over the Mazzaroth. Half the universe or more now knows the Angels can be defeated. By us. By human beings who have drawn a line. People, working together to build our own future.

David jolted when the Mazzaroth actually connected. Aluf Mishma Lamport appeared on the screen, his face hidden behind his helmet. This had to be the tenth time David tried to reach the man. At this point, it was mere ritual. He never expected an answer.

“Captain McGregor.”

“Aluf Lamport, I …” David cleared his throat. “Thank you for taking my call. We’ve got to talk, friend.”

“Do we?”

“We made an alliance against the Angels, Aluf. I didn’t expect that alliance to fracture so easily.”

The Aluf folded his arms. “Did you not? Was it not a temporary truce in times of extreme threat?”

David bloody well hoped not. “The Angels are still out there.”

“At the moment they seem more interested in conquering this New Eden Republic than invading Asherah.”

Aye, they did at that. Angel attacks had spread across the Milky Way and Andromeda, severely hampering his attempts to build up the new government. For whatever reason, the Angels had stayed away from Eden itself. But their tactics made new systems increasingly wary about signing on.

And why? Because the NER had stood up to them? Or … because they thought to make the remaining Sentinels their own army?

“Look here,” David said. “What do you think they’re going to do when they finish with us? They’ll be coming for you, quick as you like to renew their attempts to wipe you out of existence. If they conquer us, that’s just that many more forces they’ll bring against Asherah.”

The Aluf was quiet for a long moment after that. David couldn’t say whether it was a good thing or not. At last the man unfolded his arms. “What you say may be true. We will take it under consideration.”

“Good. Then we—”

“Mazzaroth off.”

Bloody void.

“That went well,” Rachel said from across the room.

“Better than I expected, anyway.” He strolled over and sat on the bed beside her.

“How are the repairs going?”

They had been stuck in space dock, refitting the ship. But since it was a QI prototype, the local crew was unfamiliar with some of the systems. “Slowly.” Much slower than he’d like. Every minute they spent here was a minute he wasn’t protecting people from assault. “Any word from Knight?”

“No. It’s too soon, anyway.”

“Aye.” David scratched his head, wondering whether to bring up the topic that had been wandering around his mind for days.

Rachel laughed. “Out with it.”

Bloody empath. “So, lass … are you still using contraceptive tabs?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“I just … I thought after we got married we would start planning a family … it’s what you wanted too, right?”

Rachel sighed and mussed up her hair a bit before speaking. “Yeah. Yes, Mac. It is. I just … Like this? I mean, Angels killing people everywhere we turn. It doesn’t seem like the right time.”

David sidled closer and wrapped his arms around her. “You scared, then? Maybe there isn’t going to be a right time, lass. That’s the holy universe we live in. Means the present is always the right time. Never know how much more than that we’re going to have, do we?”

“Don’t talk like that. We’ll have time when this is done, Mac.”

“Aye, if it’s ever done. Things might not go back to how they were.”

Rachel leaned in closer to his embrace, trembling a little. He squeezed her.

“I’m just thinking … When we touched that other universe … It’s out there. Just beyond some imperceptible wall. Waiting for us. Waiting to get in.”

Aye. And with her empathic gift, no point in denying he was scared as all shite by it. But there was nothing to be done for it. Thanks to Caleb, now they knew what it was. The Adversary. Seemed almost unthinkable. He had always imagined the Adversary as aliens, somewhere beyond the Local Group. They would wait with a fleet to invade human space. The Covenant protected mankind from them.

Actually, that was kind of true, albeit not in the way he’d thought. Mankind Shall Adhere to the Bounds of the Conduit. Because if it was breached it could make a bloody hole straight to the Adversary. So they were aliens, but not waiting on the edge of space. Waiting beyond it, in a realm of hatred. An entire universe that was alive, according to Caleb—who was, admittedly, a bit off rotation. But something had scared the shite out of the Jericho man.

“Look, you said there are still some seals left, aye? So now that we know what this Apollyon is up to, we can put a stop to him, too.”

“Mac, we don’t know how many are left or where they are. How are we going to protect them? Especially while we’re busy fighting off Angel attacks and Asherah is trying to take over whole galaxies?”

That’s why they needed that alliance with Asherah. David needed the Aluf to see reason. It was in mankind’s best interest to stand united against the Angels. Maybe … Maybe the Asherans would never join the NER. But if they could have peace … That would be worth any effort.

He sighed. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, lass. But right now, it’s you and me in this room. No Angels. No Adversary. And no bloody Asherans.”

She laughed. “You’re incorrigible.” She kissed his cheek.

David flipped her around in his arms and leaned her down to kiss her mouth.

Let them forget fear. At least for one night.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-FOUR

And with the line drawn, we say, ‘enough’. We will not be slaves. We will not bow down. We shall rise.

Gadara.

Knight hated this damn planet. The Lazarus Group had brought him here from Eden to experiment on him. To test the limits of his Nephilim bloodline. To try to activate dormant genes with electroshock torture and retroviruses that ravaged his immune system. And forced him to relive the traumas of his childhood. And he’d sworn to kill Galizur—Raziel.

And now he was looking down at the little shithole from a shuttle.

“Hey,” Phoebe said. “You all right?”

“Fine.”

“Look. Forget what happened on the planet, all right. Try to remember what we did in orbit after that. Pretty nice, you know? Especially for you, I mean.”

No kidding. He had never expected … Phoebe had come for him. He’d been alone, certain he would die, and she had come to save him. And maybe she had saved more than his body.

She elbowed him. “Wake up, ninja boy. I’m taking us in for a landing. Meaning forget what I said. Don’t go thinking too deeply about what happened in orbit. No time for that now.”

Knight jumped from his seat and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her hard. The shuttle spun out of control, flipping around in a loop.

Phoebe pushed him off and he fell back into his seat, laughing.

“God, Knight. You’re totally off rotation, you know? I have to set the autopilot before we think about romping.”

He chuckled again, and caught the smile she tried to hide.

She lowered the shuttle onto the landing pad, then turned to stare at him. “No killing anyone.”

He spread his hands. He knew what they were here for.

“I mean it. Not even half-killing.”

“Ten percent?”

She rose. “God, did you just make a joke? Be still my heart. Keep at it, maybe I can cram a sense of humor into you, yet. I was afraid I was going to have to ask Leah to surgically implant one. You wouldn’t have liked that. Come on.”

Knight shook his head, and Phoebe led him to their waiting escort. Men in gray Lazarus coats. Knight glared at one and slipped a throwing knife into one hand. He flipped it around in his fingers, catching the sunlight and reflecting it into the man’s eyes.

Phoebe said no killing. She never said not to terrify the little shits.

“Looks like they fixed most of the damage I caused last time I was here.”

“Yup, yup.”

“Guess they probably couldn’t bring back all the people I killed. So much for the Lazarus project, huh?”

Several of the guards shifted, each casting nervous glances his way. Knight pulled another throwing knife, and began the same dance in his other hand.

“Hey, Knight,” Phoebe said, “remember that talk we had about appropriate conversation? And how you should maybe brush up on it? Well, keep brushing, big guy.”

The guards moved a little further aside from him and led him to a building, perhaps fifty stories tall. They took a lift up to the penthouse, where the guards left them. Knight reached out, telekinetically scanning the room. Only one person. He opened the door. The floor was totally open, a single office that must have been more than two thousand square meters. Like the great hall of a palace in some sappy vid. A long, ornate carpet stretched across the path leading to the desk where Raziel sat, currently in his human guise.

He rose when they approached and spread his hands. “Did frightening my people amuse you?”

Knight shrugged. “Yeah. Not as much as frightening you would, though.”

“Child, I have looked into the maw of the Beast and felt its sick breath on my face. Nothing else in this universe frightens me.”

“Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think, Angel.”

“Ooookay,” Phoebe said. “Dial back the testosterone, all right. I know you’re not undersexed, so how about you relax and we talk about what we came for. You know, Angel space stations, the Adversary. End of the universe. Small talk.”

Raziel waved them to a pair of chairs across from his desk.

Knight glowered, but sat. Phoebe was right, of course. He’d promised Rachel to come here and get Raziel. Well, here he was. “Rachel wants you back aboard the Sephirot.”

The Angel sat back down and shook his head. “Not yet. There are other preparations I have to make. And I still have hopes of convincing my brethren to make peace.”

“They’re not going to work with us,” Knight said. “You said yourself they see us as insects.”

“I’m hoping recent events force them to reevaluate that stance.”

“Look, if you won’t come with us,” Phoebe said, “at least give us some answers to take back to Rachel. So maybe she’ll let us get on with our lives.”

“I’m sorry, child,” Raziel said, “but I do not think that will be possible for you for some time. If your kind is to have a chance of survival, Knight will have to remain in this war.”

“Fantastic.”

“Fine,” Knight said. “Whatever. Tell us about the seals, Angel.”

Raziel lowered his head and was silent for a moment. When he looked up, his eyes were dark. “We created seven seals to keep the Adversary at bay. Each was a space station, built as a kind of dimensional lock. It was meant to bar the way to parallel universes. Unfortunately, the Conduit, if not navigated properly, might still lead one into other universes. Hence why we instated the Second Commandment.” The Angel waved his hand, and a holo display popped up over his desk, showing seven highlighted locations. “Three thousand years ago, this one—” he pointed at one in the Pegasus Dwarf, “—was destroyed. We never knew how at the time, though I now suspect Apollyon may have been responsible. Regardless, it allowed the Adversary limited access to our universe.”

“Three thousand …” Phoebe said. “You’re talking about the attack on Eden?”

“Yes. With a seal gone, the Adversary managed to bring a ship through a breach in the Conduit. Eventually, it found Earth—Eden—and resolved to destroy humanity.”

“Why?” Knight asked. Why should these aliens want to kill humans? Their war was with the Angels. “What is the Adversary and why does it even care about us?”

Raziel sighed. “We made many mistakes … committed so many sins … The Adversary was our greatest. We created a sentient universe in order to fight against our enemies at the time.”

Enemies? He’d thought the Adversary was the Angels’ only foe. “What are you talking about?”

“The Lotan. You would call them aliens. Beings of dark matter that threatened our dominance of this universe. So we created an organism molded after their own nature. Something with which to fight our foes.”

“And you lost control of it?” Phoebe asked.

“Oh yes.” Raziel shook his head. “The Adversary earned its name because it became an enemy far greater than what we created it to fight. It drove off the Lotan, then it turned on us. Our sin was pride. In our arrogance, we created something we did not understand and could not control. We thought to play God. It nearly destroyed us.”

“So you locked it away forever,” Knight said.

“We sealed the other universe apart from this one. But still it reached out, corrupting us with the Beast. And seeping dark energy into our universe. A phenomenon we have searched for billions of years for a way to abate.”

“Dark energy?” Knight asked.

“It’s negative energy,” Phoebe said. “It composes most of the mass-energy total of the universe, accelerating its expansion. In theory it will eventually cause the Big Rip. That’s the whole universe breaking apart.”

Sometimes he forgot how damn smart the girl was.

So … When the Angels sealed the Adversary away, it was content to destroy the universe slowly, on a scale of billions of years. Feeding in this dark energy until it dominated all creation.

“With the seals falling, the rate of dark energy injection is increasing,” Raziel said. “But if the last two seals fall, they won’t need to kill us billions of years from now. An armada of Adversary ships will sweep into our reality to destroy their former masters.”

Knight shut his eyes. Raziel was right. He wasn’t going to be retiring any time soon.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-FIVE

May 16th

It’s hard to trust Asherah, but David insists it’s worth the risk. If they side with us, we will truly have a force capable of stopping the Angels. That the Angels created the Adversary shouldn’t have shocked me, I suppose. Their creation turned on them, just as we have now done. Given how they treated humanity, it comes as little surprise the Adversary didn’t like being ruled by Angels. In the end, maybe it’s not so different from us.

Rachel had visited Asheran space before, back when she was hunting Angel relics. Every time she came here she felt her psionic nerves stand on end. She had limited gift for ESP or prescience, but the worlds here left her jittery. She’d tried to tell herself that cybernetics were not evil, the Angels had merely declared them so to limit humanity. But still, some fears were so deeply ingrained she could not shake them. And just when she had begun to do so, Raziel had offered another of his cryptic warnings. Damn Angel never spoke straight.

Of course, Rachel had never expected the Aluf’s summons for a peace summit, but David had leapt at the chance. The moment they could leave space dock he’d take the Sephirot toward the Triangulum galaxy.

And she couldn’t blame him. If Asherah stood alongside the NER instead of against it, they could finally bring down the Angels. Maybe force them to compromise. Raziel had already been trying to get them to see reason—maybe with a united humanity against them they would finally stand down. If not, David would be forced to destroy the Ark. He had already proved the Sephirot could handle one of their lesser ships. With the entire armada of mankind behind it, she was pretty sure they could take on the Ark—high though the cost might be.

In all her visits to Asheran space, she had never come to Asherah itself. The world was dark, its atmosphere clogged with thick clouds of pollution and charged electrical storms. Even from far away, her scanners picked up the massive cities. Or not cities, but city, as though a single entity covered almost the entire planet. A nested web of metal and wire and constant light.

A fleet of leviathans protected the system. Perhaps they were here primarily to guard against the Ark, should it resume its attempt at genocide. Of course, the Sephirot’s reputation no doubt preceded it. She could assume some of the extra precautions were there because of the peace summit.

The whole crew was nervous. It filled the air and seeped into her pores like a miasma of doubt, threatening to choke and drown her. Her eyes itched with it, and she fought the urge to fidget at her console.

“That’s seven leviathans and twice as many cruisers,” she said.

“It’s all right, lass,” David said. He pulled the Sephirot into orbit. “Leah, you have the bridge. I’m heading down to the summit.” He walked over close to Rachel and put a hand on her shoulder.

“I should be going with you.”

He kissed her cheek. “You know they only want me. I’m speaking for the Synod here.”

Frankly, she was jealous of the chance to see Asherah. So few Mizraim citizens ever got to see it. It was frightening, of course, but exciting, too.

She kissed David back, and he left for the hangar.

Rachel drummed her fingers on her console. Of course she knew the Asherans had no reason to invite her, but still … It hurt to be left out. She was the one who started all this. She should be there when mankind finally made peace. And now she’d become just another Sentinel. Nothing special to the Aluf.

Her comm buzzed. “Lieutenant Jordan?”

“Yes?”

“Prisoner Caleb Gavet is asking to speak with you.”

Fine. It would give her something to do. Maybe she’d even have to see about having the poor man released. He’d been through enough. Though she couldn’t read his emotions, her heart told her Caleb was no longer her enemy. He was no longer much of anything. Rebekah and Apollyon had broken him.

She strolled down to the brig and found Caleb pacing his cell, covered in sweat.

“What happened to you?” she asked.

“Rachel! I just heard we’ve come to Asherah.”

“Yeah, we’re in orbit of their homeworld. It’s beautiful, in a sinister kind of way.”

“You can’t trust them, Rachel. We have to leave.”

She snorted. “Weren’t you already in bed with them? Weren’t you the one who urged me to turn to them?”

He slapped both palms against the smart glass and Rachel jumped back. “I was wrong! Don’t you understand? They’re working with Apollyon! They’re cyborgs, Rachel. They’re going to serve him in the end whether they want to or not.”

“What are you—”

Her comm flared. “Suzuki to Jordan. Get to the bridge! Now!”

Leah?

Rachel took a last glance at Caleb then ran back toward the lift. The ship jerked from a sudden impact, and then two more, seconds later. Missiles? God, the Asherans were shooting at them. The summit couldn’t have even started yet. What the void?

She dashed onto the bridge and rushed toward Leah, who sat in the captain’s chair.

On the screen, a missile streamed toward David’s shuttle. It impacted and an antimatter explosion engulfed it. The shuttle’s fusion cell detonated and it vanished in a wave of light.

Rachel tripped and fell to the deck.

That was impossible.

David could not … That was … David?

“Target the lead leviathan,” Leah said. “Full pulse barrage.”

David was … Not possible. No, he had to be fine. He was her husband. Billions had died in this war, but not him …

“There’s too many ships!” the ensign on weapons said.

“Fuck …” Leah mumbled. “Uh … The ion cannons. Can we fire the ion cannons?”

Rachel yanked her from the chair. They needed a Psych pilot for this. “Full spread. Fire everything! Missile barrage on the leviathans, MAGs on the cruisers. Kill them! Kill them all!”

Hundreds of missiles streamed over the view screen. Rachel dove the Sephirot low, breaching the planet’s atmosphere. Let them fire on her now. Let them ignite their own planet. Yes. Let the whole fucking planet burn.

She directed pulse fire on the city below. Buildings evaporated in clouds of ionized gas as the pulse fire ripped away whole kilometers at a time. The Angels weren’t the only ones who could destroy a planet. She wasn’t sure the Sephirot could actually destroy the world, but she could render it lifeless in a matter of minutes. And she aimed to do so.

“Prep the antiproton cannons,” she said. “Target that leviathan.”

The Asherans kept shooting at her, but as she expected, they limited themselves to MAGs. They’d never risk antimatter explosions or plasma fire over their own cities. She didn’t have that problem.

David.

The moment the missile tubes were reloaded she sent out another barrage.

A cruiser imploded, sucked into its own singularity. A second was pulled in. The antiproton cannons streamed, engulfing a leviathan, and it too imploded.

Hundreds of damage flares lit up her console. Rachel ignored them.

David was dust.

They would pay. They would pay! “I’ll kill you all!” she shouted at the remaining ships.

“Rachel!” Leah grabbed her and shook her.

An explosion rocked the bridge and a console blew. A Sentinel fell, plasma burns disintegrating his face.

“Rachel! We have to get out of here!”

“They’ll die first!” Rachel tried to shove the woman away.

Leah yanked her from the chair. “Stop this. Is there another Psych pilot on the bridge?” she shouted.

“Me!” someone else cried.

“Take the chair. Get us the void out of here.”

“No!” Rachel said, and pushed Leah away.

The Amphie bitch grabbed her. Rachel punched her in the face. Or tried. Leah caught the blow on her arm, spun Rachel around, and sent her to her knees with a twist. The impact stung, for a second. Leah’s arm wrapped around her throat. She struggled against the Sentinel, but Leah was stronger and had leverage. Damn Sentinel training was …

Damn Leah … The bitch …

Things began to fade.

David was … She had to get him …

Because …

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-SIX

A thousand times I ran over the event in my mind. A thousand times I saw the end of the world.

Blinding lights shone into David’s eyes and it took several moments of blinking to clear his vision. Magnetic restraints bound him to what appeared to be an operating table.

Bloody void. The EMP had shut down his shuttle. The Asherans must have hit him with some kind of knockout attack after he lost control. Now, men and women in lab coats circled him. Surgical masks blocked his view of their faces.

Someone jabbed an IV into his arm.

“What the void have you buggers done with my suit! Why are you doing this?”

The doctor jerked back, as if shocked he’d woken. The man moved to adjust a dial attached to the IV. David lunged against his restraints, jerking the whole table but not even budging the mag locks.

“Release me! I am a senior officer of the Sentinels. Release me and we will show leniency.”

A man in Asheran battle armor strode over and gently pushed the doctor aside. The soldier’s faceplate popped open, revealing Aluf Mishma Lamport.

“Welcome, Captain.”

“Get buggered.” This man—this machine—had called him here for peace negotiations. David had come in good faith. Blind faith, as the case appeared. “What do you want with me?”

“We want you, of course. You’ve become a symbol to your government. Your fall will demoralize the remaining Sentinels.”

David laughed. The man was a fool. “Sentinels don’t leave people behind, Aluf. Whether today, tomorrow, or the next day, you’re going to have a bloody fleet of battleships descending on this planet. You can’t even imagine the box of flaming shite you just opened on your own doorstep.”

“No, Captain. They aren’t looking for you. Because to them, you’re dead. A hologram of your shuttle exploding was all they saw. Congratulations. You’re a martyr. Or you will be, until you’re ready to serve us.”

Hologram? Bloody void. If the Aluf spoke the truth, Rachel would be … devastated. Broken.

David roared at the man and strained against his restraints again. The shriek of metal on metal echoed through the room as the table moved a few centimeters. “I will never serve Asherah. You’re totally off rotation if you think—”

“You won’t have a choice, Captain.” He stood aside, and waved the doctor over.

The man slid a table on wheels to David’s bedside, revealing an assortment of metal-pronged devices. Cybernetic implants.

“The Beast is coming for you,” the Aluf said, then put a hand on David’s shoulder. “Just as it came for me. Don’t fight it. Soon, you will become a symbol of the new order.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-SEVEN

May 17th

Oblivion is mercy.

The void had swallowed her alive. Rachel couldn’t breathe, couldn’t understand why her heart was still beating. She had woken in her room, her head aching, her vision foggy. It cleared, but she still could not believe what had happened. The universe could not be so cruel … Mac was … he wouldn’t go down like that. Blown away on a shuttle …

All she had been fighting for meant nothing.

She slumped from her bed onto the floor. She tried to push herself up, but her muscles wouldn’t work. Nothing worked. The holy universe was malfunctioning. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She wasn’t meant to live without …

Her chest trembled, then shook. Sobs wracked her and she fell over, unable to control them. Why should she? Why should she do anything? It was enough. Too much. She had done too much. The price. Her fault.

She had created all of this. Her pride. Her refusal to accept the universe as it was. Reap the whirlwind.

She cried until her head felt ready to split open. Until her sides stung. Until she had no moisture left in her eyes.

When she woke, she was still on the floor. A thick dryness filled her mouth, like chewing on sawdust.

Her body ached when she sat, and the room spun around her. For a moment she steadied herself, then made her way to the washroom. She popped a sanitizer tab in her mouth and tried to savor the minty fizz. A shower. A hot shower.

She stripped and stood under the spray for a long time. As if the past could be washed away so easily. As if the loss of the future could be cleaned with water and heat and soap.

Her spine cracked as she stretched. Sleeping on the floor … bad for the body. Just keep going. Just for today.

She had to. She had to see the Asherans punished. It was all that remained to her. She would bring the Sephirot back and destroy them. All of them. The wrath of God would descend upon them.

And it would wear her face.

She turned off the shower and flipped on the evaporator. In a rush of heat all the water on her skin turned to steam. She pulled her uniform back on. David had made her a Sentinel. Like he was. So now one Sentinel would avenge another.

And for a thousand years all mankind would remember the price of betrayal.

“Mazzaroth on,” she said. “Contact Ezekiel Knight.”

Seconds later he appeared on screen, shirtless. The network of scars crisscrossing his chiseled muscles no longer entranced her. She felt nothing.

“What the void, Rachel? I’ve called twice.”

“I was … indisposed. Something has happened.”

When she didn’t speak, Knight spread his hands. “ … And?”

“Asherah betrayed the peace summit.” Her throat was so dry her voice sounded like a whisper. “They destroyed the shuttle Mac was on.”

Knight’s mouth opened a second, then shut. “I’m sorry,” he said at last.

Phoebe stepped into view. “God, Rachel. I’m so sorry.”

She nodded. There was nothing else to say on the matter. “Is Raziel with you?”

“No,” Knight said. “He still hopes to communicate with the Angels. He told me they built seven seals, and that five are now gone. They made the Adversary to fight some kind of aliens called the Lotan, but they lost control of it. If the seals break, the Adversary has a whole armada to send against the Angels. Most likely, they’re falling back to defend them now.”

“Are you still on Gadara?”

“Nope,” Phoebe said. “Hannah wanted to take the Wake back to Eden.”

“Phoebe … You’d be the captain of the Sephirot now. But you’re not here.”

“Yup, yup … So who did David leave in charge?”

Rachel glowered. “Leah.”

“She’s a doctor.”

“Yeah. Send the signal. Name me acting captain.”

Phoebe twirled her hair. “Uh … Rachel, I don’t know about that …”

“I aim to make them pay for what they’ve done.”

Phoebe shook her head. “All the more reason you’d be compromised. Command is a huge responsibility.”

“I commanded the Ark itself! Think how you would feel if it were Knight.”

The Icie glanced at Knight, who stood silently by her side. “I … uh … Okay, Rachel. But promise me you won’t throw your life away. Promise me you won’t waste the lives of the crew.”

Rachel shut her eyes. Maybe part of her wanted to do just that. To fly the Sephirot straight back to Asherah and blast them to smithereens, no matter the cost. But Phoebe was right. That was not the legacy David would want. No. He’d want his crew protected. She would have her vengeance, but not through a suicide mission.

“I promise.”

“Then I’ll send the signal.”

“What about us?” Knight said.

“Stay with Hertz. I’ll rendezvous with you when I’m able. Mazzaroth off.”

Rachel strode from her quarters toward the lift. Before the attack, Caleb had been trying to tell her something. Void, he’d been trying to warn her about Asherah. What had he said? That they would serve Apollyon whether they wanted to or not. What did that mean?

Before she exited to the brig, another triangle insignia appeared on her uniform. Lieutenant Commander. Phoebe must have made the call. “Computer,” she asked. “Who is in charge of this ship?”

“Acting Captain Rachel Jordan.”

Good.

Leah might be pissed. Let her be.

Rachel hurried through the brig to Caleb’s cell. The man sat with his head in his hands, trembling. He mumbled to himself like some off rotation freak. Or … like a Psych during an Ascension. But Caleb was no Psych. Whatever Apollyon had done to him was driving him mad.

Rachel tapped the controls to open the door and stepped inside.

“What did you mean? They would serve him whether they wanted to or not?”

Caleb looked up. His eyes were red, lined with dark circles. His cheeks showed nail marks, like he had clawed at them. Scratching his own damn face off. The poor bastard was going to need to be sedated. But before that, she needed answers.

“Caleb!”

He shook himself. “The … uh … the cybernetic implants, Rachel. It makes them vulnerable. Somehow, with machines in the body, the Adversary can touch you. It … it haunts. It forces you to … There’s no peace, Rachel. Not even in sleep. An endless waking nightmare.”

The implants. Cybernetics …

Rachel shuddered and put a hand on Caleb’s head. He suffered too much. More than even he deserved.

Cybernetics.

“Can it be removed?” Rachel asked.

Caleb swallowed. “Even if you had someone with the skills … I’d be blind. Besides, part of it is hooked right into my brain.”

Raziel had said the Angels could no longer live without them. But … because of them they were at war with themselves. What had he said exactly? And so we live in continuous torment, at war with ourselves, trembling before the passage of the Beast. And some of us fell. She had thought he meant civil war between Angels. And there had been that … But Raziel meant … the Beast. That was what Caleb was suffering. The Beast was some kind of possession, through cybernetic implants. Because of the machines, the Adversary could touch the Angels’ minds, even from another universe.

Raziel was literally at war within his own mind. A war to retain his own free will.

Some of the Angels fell … to the Beast. They became servants of the Adversary.

She backed away until she bumped into the cell wall.

Many of the Angels themselves broke under the strain. The fallen were the ones who literally fell in the war—and became possessed by the Beast. And Asherah … the entire Asheran military was cybered.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-EIGHT

May 18th

The total betrayal of Asherah is unforgivable. They have woken the dragon. I will see them burn in the inferno.

Knight worked through forms. The suite Hertz had given him and Phoebe was no dojo, but it had just enough room for training. Sometimes it was good to practice in tight spaces. Most real fights happened in cramped quarters.

“Looking good, big guy,” Phoebe said from where she sat on the kitchen counter. “Keep it up, and you’ll be almost as good as me.”

Knight quirked a smile, but didn’t look at her. Focus.

“Well, I mean, not really,” she said. “But you could be second best.”

“Whatever.”

“Shit, Knight. With that attitude, you won’t even make second best. Keep working hard. I wanna see some sweat.”

Focus. He could keep the focus under any … almost any circumstance. The Icie did tend to test his limits.

The Mazzaroth chimed with an incoming call. Rachel Jordan.

Now he spared a glance at Phoebe.

She shrugged. “Maybe they’re arranged a rendezvous.”

“Receive call.”

Rachel appeared on the screen and looked him up and down. “Why are you half naked every time I call?”

Knight shrugged.

“Reasons vary,” Phoebe said, and hopped down to stand beside him.

“Uh, huh.” Rachel nodded. “Knight, you said the Angels fought some kind of aliens … Real aliens besides the Adversary?”

“The Lotan,” Phoebe said. “Dark matter beings, or so Raziel claimed. Kind of hard to wrap my mind around that.”

No shit. Phoebe had explained that dark matter was undetectable by normal means. It emitted no light. Which meant, without specially calibrated scanners, if these Lotan were out there, people could have flown right by them and never known. It would explain how humans had spent more than three thousand years in space and never found the creatures.

“I had a thought,” Rachel said. “The Angels forbade travel into the Expanse of Nod.”

“So?”

“So why open thirty galaxies to us and forbid us one expanse?”

Knight shrugged again. How the void would he know that? Angels were unfathomable nowadays. He didn’t need to analyze choices they made millennia back.

“You think that’s where these Lotan live?” Phoebe said.

Oh. Well, that made sense.

“Yeah. And I think you need to go find them.”

Knight looked to Phoebe. “Can you calibrate the scanners to detect this dark matter?”

She folded her arms. “I could.”

“Great,” Rachel said. “Do it. Contact me when you find them. Mazzaroth off.”

The screen went dead. Knight kept his focus on Phoebe. He knew that look. This wasn’t going to be good.

“What?”

“What the void do you mean, what?” She spread her hands as if to invite an explanation. Of course, he didn’t know what the problem was this time. She shook her head. “You’re just going to go looking for aliens, now? For her. Again!”

“Technically this is the first time I’ve gone looking for aliens.”

“So not the point right now! Once again, she asks you to do something and you act like her eager lap dog.”

Not this shit again. He threw up his hands. “I thought we were past this.”

“Yup, yup. All well and past it. Just flew right by. Never mind that you just agreed to looking for fucking aliens, Knight. Aliens powerful enough to threaten the Angels.”

He was pretty sure that was Rachel’s point. If these Lotan had warred with the Angels, maybe they would make allies to mankind. It was worth a shot. “We have to try, Phoebe. If there is even a chance we could put an end to this war, don’t we have to risk it? People are dying, whole worlds vanishing.”

“You are putting our baby at risk!”

“Our … what?” Void, she was pregnant? He took a step toward her, reached a tentative hand to her abdomen. “You mean … really?”

“Yup, yup.” Her face softened a little bit. “We’re going to be parents. Little baby Knight running about on his own little ball of ice.”

Holy universe … Him. A father.

His face felt like it would split apart from grinning. He grabbed her in his arms and spun her about with a whoop. She laughed and he kissed her on the cheek. “Thank you.”

She snorted. “Well, technically you helped, big guy.” She hugged him back. “So … I assume we need to call Rachel back and tell her we can’t go.”

“But I—”

“It’s okay, ninja boy. You’re scared. I get it. I’ll call her. Pretty sure I can handle it.”

“Phoebe …”

God, she was right. Going looking for aliens was terrifying. And it might place them at risk. The whole ship and their baby, too. But … But Rachel was right, as well. This might be their best chance. And she was counting on Knight.

He sighed. He couldn’t believe he was going to say this. “Phoebe … This is bigger than us. Bigger even than our family.”

Phoebe arched her brow. “You. Are. Shitting me.”

“I can’t turn my back on mankind now.”

“Okay, I think you let this off rotation navi nonsense go to your head. Knight, we’re just people. I don’t care what kind of bloodline you come from.”

He shook his head. “I’m no prophet. This isn’t about being Nephilim, love. It’s about me. It’s about duty. I’m the one who can do this, so I’m the one who has to. We are part of the human race. Our baby is going to grow up to live in the universe we create. And whether that’s a universe enslaved to the Angels or not is up to us—it depends on our decisions here and now.”

She turned away and walked across the room. “God. I don’t believe this.”

“Phoebe, please try to understand.”

“I understand,” she snapped

“Do you?”

“Yup.” She shrugged and walked to the door. “Yup. I get it. Let’s just do this.”

Knight shut his eyes and blew out a long breath. He never wanted to hurt her. He never wanted to put her in this position. But … he had to do whatever it took to put an end to this war. No matter the personal cost.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED FIFTY-NINE

June 10th

David’s death did not have the effect Asherah might have wished. He was a symbol of the strength of the Sentinels. As a man, they silenced him. As a symbol, his voice rang through the halls of history and a billion voices rose to join it. As word spread over the Asheran betrayal, enrollment in our forces has spiked to unprecedented levels.

Rachel paced around the Sephirot’s war room, fingers twitching at her side. Still no word from Knight, and now this.

“Play it again.”

The screen flashed back to the recording. A battle on the edge of the Tucana Dwarf galaxy. A fleet of Asheran and Conglomerate ships descended on a seemingly abandoned Angel outpost. A half dozen Angels ships rose up to stop them. So many missiles filled the sky it blocked her view of the details of the battle.

In the end, though the Asherans lost many ships, the Angels fell. One by one. An Asheran cruiser flew right into the space station, ensuring its destruction. And the vid was broadcast all over the Mazzaroth.

Asheran propaganda. A message that even Angels could be defeated through combined might of mankind. Everything Rachel ever wanted—for all the wrong reasons.

That outpost had to have been one of the seals. The way the Asherans threw themselves at it, losing thousands upon thousands of lives to destroy it. Because they had no choice. The Beast must have taken them. Apollyon was now in control of both Asherah and the majority of the Conglomerate.

Another seal gone. Which meant … only one remained. And if the vid she just witnessed was any indication, the Angels could not hold it themselves.

Here she had spent the last weeks hunting down Asherans. They deserved to die. They deserved fire and damnation for what they had done to David. She still had half a mind to take the Sephirot to Asherah itself and lay waste to the planet. Leah would surely have relieved her of command if she tried … The Amphie had taken Rachel’s usurpation of her authority a little better than Rachel had expected. Which was to say she did no more than glower.

No … while she fought her useless personal war against Asherah, they were preparing to release the Adversary. An alien universe primed to take over this one. The Adversary hated its former masters, the Angels—but its hatred ran deep. It wouldn’t spare humanity either. It had tried to destroy Eden, after all. And maybe the Angels were the only ones who could stop it. They had before … They had built the seals and defeated their fallen brethren.

Rachel kicked a chair away from the table and fell down into it. Could she even consider working with the Angels? They would stop the Adversary … and immediately enslave mankind. Everything back like it was in the Days of Glory. Humanity scared into obedience by the Adversary, willing to submit to one alien master to escape another. Small wonder she had once thought the Angels had created an imaginary foe to threaten people with. The truth, however, was much more horrible than she had ever considered. They had created the Adversary, then lost control of it.

She blew out a long breath, then swept her hair back from her face. “Contact Galizur Blake.”

The Mazzaroth chimed for a long time before Raziel received her call. His surroundings were dark—she could make nothing out save the shadow of his face. Always the air of mystery.

“Rachel.”

“You’ve seen the report from Tucana?”

“Of course I have seen it.”

Of course he had. She resisted the urge to wring her hands. “So? What are we going to do?”

“Die.”

“Excuse me?” She was not hearing what she thought she was. “That sounded an awful lot like you were giving up. And I know that can’t be the case, what with the fate of the holy universe on the line.”

Raziel sighed, then leaned back into shadows. She saw nothing but darkness. At last he spoke. “Forgive me, Rachel. I despaired for a moment. For billions of years we have struggled against this day—feared it. We enacted the Covenant to try to prevent this. And now it is all falling away … Swept into uselessness by …”

“By me.” God, she had done this. In her own arrogance she had blamed the Angels for all that was wrong with mankind, never once considering what could be so much worse. A return to enslavement. Or extinction. Oblivion. The end of mankind. And she had uncovered the Ark, awakened the Angels … forced the issue.

“No, Rachel. You blame yourself, and you are not without your sins … But you were not alone. To spare you truths we believed you could not understand, we withheld information perhaps we should not have … And whether you acted or not, sooner or later Apollyon would have made his move.”

Indeed. The Angel had made a puppet out of Caleb Gavet, even more than Raziel had done to Rachel.

“I so want to be able to trust your kind, Raziel.”

“But you cannot.”

“How could I? Can you guarantee that if we stop Asherah, they won’t turn on us again?”

“I cannot. I have tried to commune with them. They believe the surest way to stand against Asherah and the fallen is to force your New Eden Republic into submission. They feel it will give them the army they need to destroy those who have polluted themselves with cybernetics.”

God help her, she couldn’t see a way through this. The NER could not stand up to the Angels. They were losing their republic, one system at a time. While she was out on the frontier, punishing Asherah for their sins, the Angels were conquering her people.

“Come back to us …” she said, even before she realized it. How odd, to think she had so come to rely on the Angel. Once she had hated all his kind for their sins. Once she had hated him for the way he’d used her. But Raziel was the only bridge she had between humanity and the Angels. The only chance they had of peace.

“Soon. I fear there is little more I can do here. But I need to finish one last project, and I must do it myself.”

Rachel nodded. And before that, she had to do what she could. Her heart screamed to watch Asherah burn … but her people needed her more. It was what David would want. The Sephirot belonged back in the NER, protecting her people.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY

June 15th

We face a war on two fronts. The Asherans and the Adversary seek to enslave galaxies on one end of the Local Group, while Angels dismantle the NER on the other. Being forced back on the defensive may spell disaster in this war.

Rachel felt her way through the Conduit. Ekron was close. The system had been invaded by Angels and their Redeemer minions one day ago. And where the Redeemers went, the Gogmagog were unleashed. One world after another, conquered by Angels, and forced into submission by their secret police. Rachel supposed she should be grateful the Angels had stopped blowing up whole planets.

Out there, somewhere in the Expanse of Nod, maybe Phoebe had heard the news. Her own world, taken by the Angels. Maybe she hadn’t. Mazzaroth communication was somewhat spotty out there. Fewer quantum relays, or something like that. Would it be a blessing if the Icie didn’t know what had happened? Or a curse, perhaps. To return home only to find her world enslaved, crushed under the heel of the Gogmagog.

But not if Rachel could help it.

The Sephirot jumped out of the Conduit. Rachel pushed the ship as hard as it could go, streaming right for a pair of Redeemer cruisers in orbit of the planet.

“Fire pulse cannons the moment we come into range,” she said. “Focus fire on the starboard ship. Half missile barrage. Launch!”

A hundred missile tubes buzzed as they launched their payload. The warheads reached further than most other weapons. At this range, the Redeemers had time to shoot down the missiles. Most of them. But a pair of cruisers were no match for a battleship like the Sephirot. There was no match for the Sephirot, save the Angels themselves.

Several missiles found purchase on the Redeemer ships. Antimatter explosions rocked along the hulls, savaging the shields. In seconds they would be in pulse cannon range. She was through playing around. These bastards had betrayed mankind. They didn’t even deserve the chance to surrender.

Redeemers had been hounding her for her whole damn life. Berating her with blind loyalty to religion imposed on mankind as a means of control. Zealots. Fools who refused to have their eyes opened. Fools like her father … Like her brother, rotting in the brig …

And maybe some of them could be brought around … if they only saw the truth.

“Captain!” Ensign Barry said. “There, behind the moon.”

An Angel ship crested the dark side of the moon. Another emerged from behind the far side of the sun. They had been hiding, just out of scanner range. Void. Waiting for her? A trap to lure her in. Did they know Ekron was personal to her and her crew? God, they must—just as they’d known about Calneh. And she’d rushed right in.

Of course the Angels were smart. Too damn smart. And they’d want to deny the NER its flagship. Such a prize meant more than any one solar system.

But Ekron was still in danger. Whatever the Angels’ purpose in this trap, they had chosen Phoebe’s homeworld.

“Launch all drone squadrons,” she said. “And prep the antiproton cannons. I want those things powered before the Angels can—”

A plasma stream rocked off the Sephirot’s hull, and then another. Both Angel ships were firing. Rachel banked away. She wasn’t the pilot David had been, but she was good. She strafed right past one of the Redeemer ships, keeping it between her and the Angels.

The Redeemers’ laser batteries sliced into the Sephirot’s skin. Damage readings flared all over her console. She didn’t know how David had kept up with all this. She’d delegated the drones to other crewmen. She’d have to trust them to shoot down incoming missiles. The Redeemers were not the real threat.

“Captain?” her weapons officer said. “MAG spread on the Redeemers?”

“No. Keep them in one piece for now.” They provided a shield against the Angels.

She banked again, swerving as tightly as she could around the Redeemer ship. Damn lasers were carving her up, but Angel plasma streams would be worse.

“Antiproton cannon ready.”

Rachel jerked away, clear of the Redeemer cruiser. “Fire at the closest Angel ship!”

The antiproton stream leapt from the Sephirot, impacting the Angels instantaneously. Antimatter explosions rocked along its hull until the ship veered away, powered down.

Plasma bolts rained down over the Sephirot. Drones kept the missiles away, but even the MAG barrage from the Redeemers was beginning to wear away the shields. Soon, nothing would be left of their flagship.

“How many Redeemers are on the planet?” she asked.

“Several thousand, we believe,” Barry said.

Too many. They couldn’t take the planet back … But maybe they could keep it from falling. “Send four infiltration squads down in shuttles! Weapons, guard those shuttles no matter what.”

Four squads of Sentinels couldn’t overcome a Redeemer army. But they would prove a nightmare to those bastards when they tried to hold it. Infiltration units could use guerrilla tactics to hit and run, disrupting any semblance of Angel control on this planet. It was the best Rachel could do for now.

The shuttles launched.

The Sephirot rocked as more MAGs and plasma bursts erupted around it. Hull breaches flared on her console. If she stuck around much longer she’d lose the damn ship, but she had to buy the shuttles time to land. David had gone down in a shuttle. If she’d only stayed to protect him …

She banked around, setting a collision course for the Angel ship.

As expected, the Angels broke away at the last instant.

Immortals weren’t too eager to die, were they?

Rachel spun the ship around. “Are the shuttles clear?”

“Yes, Captain.”

Good. Her heart ached for David, but at least she’d protected these Sentinels.

She dove the ship straight for the Redeemers, trusting the crew to fire the right weapons. The Redeemers didn’t matter right now. All that mattered was saving this ship. As her enemies fled from her aggressive dive, she banked away in a loop and pushed hard for the Conduit Gate.

Let them follow. If they dared.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-ONE

June 17th

We always believed ourselves alone out here. There were the Angels, of course, but they claimed to be sent by God. The educated long ago rejected alien life as pure fantasy. A belief reinforced by the Angels themselves. Another lie.

The Wake of Heaven lingered in the Zarethon System. Though the ship remained under Hannah Hertz’s command, she had deferred to Phoebe. Hannah had trusted David, and David had trusted Phoebe. It all led back to Rachel, of course. She was convinced that if they found these Lotan, it could make a difference.

Knight wasn’t so sure. Maybe they would prove useful allies, maybe they wouldn’t talk to humans at all. Why would they acknowledge the servants of their enemies, after all? Isn’t that how the Lotan would see humanity—as slaves of Angels?

“Maybe your brother was lying,” he said.

Phoebe shook her head. She had her hand on her abdomen, though she hadn’t really begun to show yet. “Ezra said there were always rumors of aliens in this region.”

And Ezra Dana—space pirate and cyborg—was notoriously trustworthy. He’d been left in the brig on the Sephirot. Phoebe had wanted to bring him with them, but Knight had convinced her the man belonged in prison. He didn’t want sentiment clouding her judgment.

Void, pregnancy hormones seemed to do that well enough. One minute she was ecstatic, the next she ranted about Rachel sending her all the way out here.

And maybe she was right. They had spent far too long in the Expanse already, bouncing from system to system. Phoebe assured him she had calibrated the scanners to detect dark matter creatures, but still they found nothing. Maybe Rachel had sent him on a fool’s errand. Knight had to consider Phoebe and their baby.

“Captain,” the communications officer said. “We’ve got an incoming signal from Rachel Jordan. Old—it had to go through too many relays.”

Hertz looked to him.

“Let’s hear it.”

“Put it on screen,” Hertz said.

Rachel’s face filled the screen, but it was just a recording. Without proper relays, live communication wouldn’t work. “Phoebe. I don’t know whether you will have heard this, and I’m sorry to have to tell you. Ekron has been taken by the Redeemers and the Gogmagog. I’ve done all I can, and I left behind Sentinels to harry them. I promise I’ll return as soon as we’re able. Your mission takes precedence, but you have a right to know.”

The transmission cut off.

“I have a right to know,” Phoebe said. “I’ve got a right to know. That’s what she has to say? Yup, yup. That’s me, good little soldier girl who just … just … What the void, Rachel!”

Knight reached for her and she punched him in the shoulder. Then she collapsed into his arms. He’d never understand her.

“Ca-can we get a signal to Ekron?” Phoebe mumbled.

“We can send a message,” Hertz said, “but it’ll take time for it to get there.”

Phoebe trembled in his arms, then pushed him away. “I-I’ve got to send a message to Mom and Dad, you know? I, uh … Knight?”

“I’m here.”

“Haven’t we wasted enough time out here? We should go back … to … My family.”

Rachel was off rotation. As usual. This had all been a colossal waste of time. And now Phoebe’s family was in danger.

Raziel had said the Angels fought the Lotan, but that was God knew how long ago. Before the Exodus, even. In all those thousands of years, they didn’t know if the creatures even still existed. Perhaps they had fled the Local Group. Phoebe needed him now.

“Yeah. We will.”

The Icie stepped away and left the bridge, head high and shoulders taught.

“Fucking Angels,” Knight said.

Some of the crew murmured at his blasphemy. Even now. Even after all that had happened—three thousand years of tradition had enslaved their very way of thought. They fought a war against the Angels and still feared to speak ill of them.

“Fucking Angels!”

He grabbed the edge of a console and squeezed. He needed someone to hurt. He needed to kill something. To do something.

And Phoebe needed him. He’d done what he had to for Rachel—all that and more. Phoebe was right—Rachel had become a guiding light for him. And now she was drawing him away from the things that mattered most.

“Hertz. Get us the void out of the Expanse. Take us back to the Milky Way, fast as you can.”

The captain sighed, but nodded. Probably just as glad to get out of the Expanse as any of them. Zarethon had been a total waste. Maybe Ezra was lying, or maybe just relaying another rumor. Knight was done chasing rumors. He had a war to fight. And Angels would tremble before he was through.

The console beeped, and Knight glanced down at it. It beeped again, a sound like a high-pitched pulsing.

“What is that?” Hertz asked.

“Commander Dana’s special scanner just picked something up,” their comm officer said.

He looked at the view screen. Nothing. Nothing was out there. But the scanner revealed the outline of a ship, fading in and out. The reading was faint, hard to tell what he was seeing … tendrils descending from a central sphere.

“Angels above,” the comm officer said. “Looks like a giant jellyfish.”

Knight didn’t know what that meant. The officer was an Amphie, so probably some kind of underwater monster. “Hail them.” He tapped his comm. “Knight to Dana. Phoebe … You’d better come to the bridge. Right now.”

“Ensign, put the scanner readings on the screen,” Hertz said.

The Amphie did, and the display showed the massive, tentacled creature.

“Holy universe …” Hertz said. “That’s really an alien life form.”

A few years ago Knight would have said there was no such thing as aliens. Turns out they had existed not that far from Gehenna.

The screen flickered and filled with static. Then blackness, like the darkest water, shimmering slightly.

“They’ve broken into our data banks,” an officer said. “I can’t shut them out.”

“Don’t,” Knight said. “They’re probably trying to understand us.” This was what Rachel had sent them out here for. If the aliens had a way to communicate, all the better.

The bridge lift opened and Phoebe walked back to his side, her mouth open and eyes wide.

“Holy universe …” she mumbled. Her hand slipped into his.

“What’s happening?” he whispered to her.

“I think they’re trying to send a signal we can process. They understand they exist outside our visual spectrum, but they want us to be able to see and hear them. I hope.”

“So we should do …?”

“Nothing. Maybe? Run like the void is at our heels? Pray? I don’t know, Knight.” She squeezed his hand.

A moment more, and the amorphous image began to solidify. The alien ship, if that was what they were seeing, seemed viscous. Several serpentine heads and necks leaned forward, coming into view, though they remained shadows. Impressions. Like holograms projected through water … Translucent and otherworldly. Knight’s pulse quickened and time began to slow. His natural reaction to danger. He could feel the increase of adrenaline, readying him for action. But he had no idea what step to take.

Phoebe squeezed his hand again. “You brought us here, big guy.”

Knight swallowed. He had. He had agreed to Rachel’s off rotation plan without considering the risk. He dropped Phoebe’s hand and stepped forward. One way or another, he had to do this now.

“My name is Ezekiel Knight. Can you understand me?”

“I.”

“Understand.”

“You.”

Each word seemed to come from a different head, as though it was all one being. Could that be the case? Many heads of the same creature?

“Are you Lotans?”

“Yes. Human. I. Am. A. Lotan.”

A Lotan. So it was a single being. With seven heads? Or perhaps the entire ship was part of a single entity. If Rachel were here, she’d have a million questions. Actually, a million was probably selling her short.

“You know what we are?” he asked.

“You. Are like. The Angels. But different.” The creature’s speech was slowly becoming more fluid. Continuous, as if it were assimilating their language.

“The Angels have become our enemies. We know they were your enemies, as well.”

“They tried to enslave us. They created a universe. To fight us. It killed many of us before. It turned on them. They locked it away. We have the last lock now.”

The last lock? The last seal. The Lotan had taken the final Angel station? Which must mean another had fallen while he was away. “What are you going to do with it?”

“We do not know. Angels tried to destroy us. Their creation tried to destroy us. Humans do not understand us.”

“We can try.”

“Then. Try.” The screen went dead.

Knight blew out a long breath. How the void had he become an ambassador?

He looked to Phoebe, who stood there, her mouth agape. An expression mirrored on the rest of the crew.

Void.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-TWO

And so now, I place my last fragile hope in these strange creatures Raziel claims exist. Perhaps I am a fool—I have been called worse.

The Lotan had agreed to await Knight’s return. The aliens seemed surprisingly willing to cooperate. Assuming he could read them or their intentions at all. Which he probably couldn’t. But he had to get to the edge of the Expanse. From there he could hit a Mazzaroth relay and contact Rachel.

Several hours in the Conduit had seemed longer.

Knight sat cross-legged on the floor of his suite.

He didn’t look at Phoebe, but he could feel her there, on the bed. Taking endless notes on the creatures. The Lotan.

“You know this is the most important discovery in human history, right?” she said. “I mean, expect for the Ark, and the Angels, and the Adversary itself. But since then, this is it. We are making history. You and me, Knight.”

“You sound like Rachel.”

“Yup, yup.” She mimicked Rachel. “Let’s make history and save humanity and go off rotation together! Plus, I figure we can start at least two wars before breakfast. And, Knight—” her voice returned to normal “—you know you’ll be punished for comparing me to her, right? I’m just making sure you know that. So you can’t complain you don’t understand me or something later.”

Knight shut his eyes. He tried to meditate, but his thoughts raced too quickly. Was the ship itself the Lotan, or a mere extension of the alien’s being? Did more than one live in each ship, or were they single transports?

Still, those questions paled compared to the greater ones. Even if the Lotan would help him, still the Angels were out there. Conquering worlds. Worlds like Ekron. Phoebe tried to put up a brave front. She tried to keep herself busy—even Knight could see that much.

But they had taken everything from her. They had taken New Rome, the capital of her former empire. They had taken Hazaroth, where she had become a Sentinel. They had cost her the government she had sworn to uphold. And now Angels had taken her homeworld.

If they took Gehenna, he’d be pissed … and he hated that place. So how much worse if they took a place he loved?

They had taken everything from her. And she was everything to him.

By God, he was going to make them pay. For three thousand years Angels had terrorized and dominated mankind under threat of the Adversary. But it was their Adversary to fear. Rachel was right. Mankind must stand on its own, or lurk forever in the shadows of beings who would be gods.

Act or react. That was the only choice. As long as they were reacting, they were on the defensive. And the best way to overcome an enemy was to be where they least expected. To take the road they never imagined you’d take.

Knight sighed and rose, then moved to stand before Phoebe.

“I can see why the Angels needed to create the Adversary to fight them,” Phoebe said. “Engaging creatures so hard to detect must have been … Their ships are obviously organic, like the Angels’. Assuming these are ships, and not the Lotan themselves.”

Knight grabbed her and pulled her up into his arms. She shuddered, letting out a long breath and embraced him back. She had been through too much. And it wasn’t done.

“I swear we will get your world back.”

“No signal has come in from my parents.” Her voice was barely a whisper against his shoulder.

“It doesn’t mean they’re hurt, love. It just means they don’t have Mazzaroth access. Could be Redeemers jamming outgoing signals.”

“Yup. Course. That makes sense.” She nodded, and leaned into him. “Jamming. I’m sure that’s all.”

The Mazzaroth chimed. Knight turned to look at it. Rachel Jordan.

At last. She needed to know. She had to know before he acted. Then he had to go back to the Lotan. They were the key to ending this. All of it had started with them. The Angels had found a foe they couldn’t overcome, and in their pride, created a weapon they couldn’t control. But the Lotan seemed to have no interest in humanity—other than mild curiosity.

“Receive call.” He pulled away from Phoebe to stand before the Mazzaroth.

“Knight. Thank God. I was worried. You … got my message? About Ekron?”

“We did.” And he would have to help Phoebe with that as soon this was done. “I found them, Rachel. The Lotan.”

Her mouth opened a little, but no sound came out. She just sat there while he related all that had happened. No indication of what she thought. In the end, she just nodded. “Will they help us?”

“Maybe. I think they’re as confused as we are. As we were. But I know what I have to do.”

Rachel shook her head. “Great. At this point you’re probably the only person in the holy universe who can say that. So tell me, Knight. What should we do?”

He swallowed. There was only one choice, really. The Angels were taking over the whole damn universe. The NER would fall. Asherah would be destroyed. Everything would go back to how it was. Unless the Angels faced an opponent more powerful than themselves. Unless they were forced to capitulate.

Unless he made the choice they’d never see coming.

“I’m going to destroy the last seal.”

“You … what?”

“I’m going to release the Adversary.”

“Wh-what?” Phoebe mumbled. “You’re going to do what the void now?”

Rachel sat there, mouth agape, shaking her head.

“Tell me I’m wrong, Rachel. Tell me the Adversary is not the one threat that would drive the Angels away from their mission to enslave us.”

“Knight … People are not going to understand. They don’t like change, not like this. For thirty-one centuries the Adversary has been the threat at our heels. The nameless fear that keeps children awake at night. The Angels cast them as—”

“I know. They cast them the same way the Shadow Council cast the Gibborim.” Ghosts in the darkness. A threat spoken of only in whispers. “Rachel. We are failing. The Angel tyranny is returning. David was … He fell trying to stop it. Ekron fell. We are going to lose the republic if nothing changes.”

Act or react. Only a bold choice could change the future.

He could feel Phoebe shaking her head beside him. “Knight …”

Rachel sighed. “I don’t know whether you’re wrong or not, Knight. But one thing I do know. If you do this … if you open this door, you won’t be able to shut it again. A thousand generations will curse your name.”

She was right. She was too right. People would not understand. But sometimes you had to do what was necessary, even if no one else could accept it. Rachel had taught him that. “It’s for those generations I must open the door.”

All his life he had served the Shadow Council. He had spied and murdered in the name of petty warlords enforcing their petty rule over a hellhole of a world. And at long last he had become something more. He had become a Sentinel. He had gone from the ghost in the dark, to the guardian against the night. Humanity’s last line of defense against any threat.

“You’ve taught me so much,” he said.

Rachel shut her eyes. “I could say the same to you. And I pray you’re right.”

So did he. “Mazzaroth off.” He tapped his comm. “Knight to Hertz. Time to return to the Lotan.”

“Acknowledged.”

“Are you really going to do this?” Phoebe asked.

“I have to.” It was the last card he had left to play. Rachel had showed him that when you couldn’t accept the universe, you had to change it. One way or another, everything would change tonight.

“Knight …” Phoebe said, when he turned to head back to the bridge. “This is just … I mean, it’s your call. But, what are we going to do, you know, after the Angels are defeated?”

Knight paused with a sigh. He didn’t know. Maybe it would make things even worse … but to do nothing was the surest way to fail. Act or react. “This is the only play we have left. Whatever future we create, then we’ll deal with that.”

“I’m afraid.”

Not something he heard from Icie Sentinel often. Knight kissed her forehead. The truth was—so was he.

Hours later, they met the Lotan ship.

Before he could even speak, the creature appeared on screen again. “Your decision is. Made.”

“It is. I wish to be allies with the Lotan. To stop the Angels, we must destroy their seal.”

“There is. Danger.”

There always was. “Yes. Take me there.”

“Follow.” A set of coordinates for another system in the Expanse came up on the screen. Then the Lotan ship vanished, as if it had entered the Conduit, though it was nowhere near the Gate.

“Take us there,” he said.

Hertz gave the order, and after a brief jaunt through the Conduit, they arrived. An Angel station orbited the local star. Lonely, since no planets graced this system. Just the shimmering black of the station. Scanners registered the Lotan ship, hovering some distance away.

“Captain,” Knight said. “Fire the ion cannons. Destroy that station.”

For a moment, Hertz hesitated. Then she relayed the order. Thermonuclear explosions erupted along the station until, seconds later, it imploded.

“What will happen?” Hertz said, as they all watched the station vanish.

The last seal was sucked into its own singularity.

A sudden pressure rushed over his mind, then a shriek sounded against his skull. The sound of it cascaded outward. Every Psych on the bridge dropped to floor, groaning, as did Knight. A shiver ran over him, a glimpse of unfathomable hatred that lasted a fraction of a second …

That was it. The Adversary was released. It was done. Let history blame him for what must happen.

What would happen, she’d asked.

He shook his head. What had to happen. “The birth of the future.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-THREE

I hope Knight was right. I can understand the Adversary’s rage against its creators. I share it … Yet still, I am far from certain. And I fear what it will cost him in the eyes of the people.

A void that could swallow galaxies. The antilife itself. And Caleb stood before it.

There was nothing beneath him. No air, though he did not suffocate. He fell. Closer and closer to the hole. The Great Attractor filled the sky as far as he could see. Seemingly infinite in size and scope. And infinite in hatred. Angels had given birth to evil itself.

And for five billion years it had festered. Rotting like a sore on this universe, consuming it atom by atom.

And it had changed since he’d last stood here.

Once, in life, he had witnessed the cracked eye of a sleeping dragon. Now … Now it was awake. Open and alert.

Gravitational forces tugged him in every direction, while the voices tore at his mind. Offering solace. If only he would serve. Become one with the darkness. Accept the void.

His body broke apart. Molecules disintegrated as the matter that composed him fled into the black hole, feeding it. It would gorge itself on the bodies and souls of all living things. Snuffing out stars, consuming nebulae, devouring a universe … until only it remained.

And then, from the black, something emerged. Nothing escaped a black hole. Not light. Not time. Not hope.

Nothing escaped. But something was sent forth.

A ship, black and shimmering, much like an Angel vessel. But this one had eyes—a thousand eyes, glimmering with the pale light of nightmare. It shrieked as it flew past. Another emerged. And another. Hundreds of them. Thousands. Surrounding the greatest of all.

It was larger than the Ark—nearly twenty kilometers long, with six inverted wings that beat in slow, discordant rhythms. Like the others, eyes covered the hull. All watching him. And he knew its name.

Azazel.

It swooped past him, dwarfing him like the insect he was. The promise of oblivion lingered in his mind, offering sweet release from a living nightmare.

He awoke screaming in his cell, drenched in cold sweat, and tumbled from his cot. He banged his knee on the floor, then groaned in pain. The nightmares never stopped, but this was something different. This was … not a dream.

The Adversary was in his mind. Showing him the future … or worse. The present. The end of time and space was upon them.

Rapid breaths heaved through his chest. Hyperventilation. Had to calm himself. He collapsed, unable to get a hold of himself. What had happened? God Himself would tremble before the armada coming their way.

Caleb grunted, pulled himself along the floor and banged on the smart glass of his cell. Rachel had to know. She had to.

After a minute, a Sentinel came to check on him. She tapped the glass so he could speak.

“I have to see Rachel Jordan. Please, it’s urgent.”

The Sentinel glowered, saying nothing, and tapped the glass again, cutting off sound. But she spoke into her comm.

Rachel would come. She would come.

He hugged himself, unable to rise from the ground. She would come and he would tell her … The End of Days had begun. It was too late to do anything. Unless he was wrong. He had been wrong about so many things already.

At last Rachel came and opened his cell. She knelt beside him, and turned him over. “What the void happened to you?”

“The void … The void happened!” He shook himself, then rolled to sit and stare at her. “Is there time? Is there still time to stop them?”

Rachel nodded. “We hope so. Knight plans to use the Adversary against them. By now he’s destroyed the last seal. It should give the Angels something new to worry about.”

No. He couldn’t have heard that right. He was still in the nightmare. Not even that Gehennan fool could be so stupid. It was a dream. Everything was fine. The Adversary was still tormenting him. But he was on to it. He giggled. Fine, he’d play its game. He’d play along. He laughed.

“Make a fool out of me, will you?” he said. “Yes. Very amusing. Hmmm.”

“Caleb? Have you gone completely off rotation?”

He chuckled again. “No, no. You have. I wanted to warn you, but it’s a dream. I’m on to you!”

Rachel slapped him.

The impact stung. The sound rung in his ears. That was new. He didn’t usually get slapped in his dreams.

“Pull yourself together. I don’t have time for this, Caleb.”

Dear God. Did that mean … It was all true.

He took a shuddering breath, but he couldn’t calm himself. “You haven’t understood anything, have you?”

Rachel rose. “Caleb. I have to go.”

He looked up at her, willing her to call it all a trick. But he knew it wasn’t. “I’ve tried to tell you what you face, but you didn’t hear me.”

“What, Caleb?”

“You can’t make an alliance with the Adversary, Rachel. You can only serve it. You don’t make deals with the void … You feed it. And it eats and eats until nothing is left. Don’t you understand what it is?”

She shook her head helplessly. Like he was the one who’d gone off rotation.

Caleb pulled himself to his knees and stared up into her amber eyes. “The Adversary, Rachel. It’s our Adversary, too.” He nodded his head as her mouth worked into a puzzled frown. She should have listened before. He’d thought she understood the words he’d been too afraid to say. And now it was too late, but he had to say them anyway.

“The Adversary … is Hell.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-FOUR

June 18th

Once, on my wedding day, Caleb called me. He’d said he was wrong about everything. Now I know how he felt.

Rachel sat on the floor in her quarters, all the lights turned to maximum. She hadn’t been willing to face darkness since her conversation with Caleb.

Raziel had once told her she didn’t understand Hell.

Tremble in the wake of chaos, lest Hell should be unleashed.

The Codex said that.

And she had told Knight to … to release it.

She fumbled with a teacup at her side, then set it back down. It had grown cold anyway.

Raziel was so right. She had understood nothing. They were children playing with grownup tools. And she could have stopped Knight … She should have stopped him. But she’d thought anything would be better than another three thousand years of Angel theocracy.

She’d been wrong. Except that … She feared Hell because the Codex told her to. And she had readily dismissed the other so-called truths it brought with it. Perhaps her fear, her reaction was ingrained in her by the Angels. Just as people’s reactions to the Angels themselves was.

People feared Hell was where the wicked went when they died. They had thought it was a place, not a living force. But it was both. A sentient universe. Never had the Angels let on that the Adversary was the same Hell mentioned in the Codex. Maybe they had thought to spare mankind the horrible truth. Or maybe it was just another way to try to hide their sins.

Angels had built … Hell.

She had seen it herself. A fleeting glimpse when she breached the Conduit. But she hadn’t known that was the Adversary. Maybe, maybe it would only turn on the Angels.

Mankind Shall Adhere to the Bounds of the Conduit.

Because beyond it lies Hell. Waiting for the chance to reach back into this universe. And if Caleb was right, they were not content to merely destroy the Angels. They would devour all creation. One universe at a time. Had others fallen—other universes not protected by Angel seals?

She wrapped her hands around her knees. She had brought about Armageddon. Nothing she could think of would fix this. Nothing would change things back to how they had been. She had to get Raziel. And Knight and Phoebe. They would have to make a stand.

“Mazzaroth,” she said. Her voice sounded cracked and dry. She swallowed. “Contact Galizur Blake.”

When he filled the screen, the shadows were gone. His wings were spread, glimmering in pale light. “What have you done? You allowed your creature to breach the final seal, Rachel! Do you have any idea what you have unleashed?”

She nodded, helpless to refute his accusations. She’d thought … She’d thought Angels were mankind’s greatest enemies. Still, after all that had happened, she’d thought the Codex mere lies. Rules to force humanity into subservience. And it was—even Raziel admitted that.

“They know, Rachel. They know what he has done. They have declared him the Pariah.”

Knight … Outcast from all human society—blamed for the woes of mankind. The Angels would spread the word, and nowhere would be safe for him anymore. In days he would be the most infamous man in history. The man who had unleashed Hell itself onto an unsuspecting populace. People would never care what his motives were, what misconceptions he’d acted under. And she’d warned him he would be hated … But he said he had to do it for future generations.

“Can you tell them it wasn’t like that?” Spare him.

“I cannot. He has brought this on himself, Rachel.”

“Please come back. Let us pick you up.”

Raziel’s shoulders slumped. “Child, I can do little now. My hopes of overcoming Apollyon rested on that last, hidden seal.”

“What can we do?”

He shook his head. “Maybe nothing, now. You should have … It matters not anymore. There is more than enough blame to go around for the state of this universe. I wish you well, Rachel Jordan. Find what solace you may. Mazzaroth off.”

The screen went dead.

Just like that. Her last hope, severed.

She fell forward and vomited. She heaved out what little was in her stomach, then stumbled to the washroom. She rinsed her mouth and her face in ice-cold water. Her actions had led them all here … But Raziel was right. It was not her alone. And one way or another, she was going to save mankind.

Be it Hell or Angels or Asherah … She was a Sentinel now, like David before her, and she had sworn to protect humanity against any threat. Any foe.

Water streamed from her face as she rose.

David had given his life for the people. As much as she missed him, she knew he’d done what was right. He was a true Sentinel, and his legacy was hers, now. She couldn’t let him down.

A Sentinel held the line against the night.

And that was what she was going to do. For David. For Knight. For everyone.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-FIVE

July 1st

When I was a kid, my father used to read the Codex to us. Over and over, he’d make us sit through his favorite passages. Warning us of the dangers of Hell. I guess I should have listened.

With his helmet up, even the cold of Ekron didn’t really bite at Knight. Sentinel suits were true marvels. He crouched atop a building, looking down on another Redeemer patrol, ten stories below.

Phoebe kicked one of the dead Magog. “Not as much fun invading the world now, is it? Big dead dumb shit.”

This was the third Gogmagog outpost they’d taken out in Ekron City. The planet was too cold for the Gog to use their natural camouflage—even they needed parkas when outside. It worked to his advantage. Made them so much easier to track.

“Knight? What are you—”

Knight leapt off the building, pulling his kyoketsu as he fell. He triggered his grav-net seconds before landing in the midst of the Redeemers.

“What the—” one began.

A whip of his kyoketsu severed the man’s head. Knight continued the arc, slicing through another man’s leg, then flicked his wrist backward to open a man’s stomach.

A Redeemer charged him, waving a stun lance. Knight sidestepped, caught the man, and doubled him over his own pain stick. An elbow to the face dropped a fifth man, and upswing of his kyoketsu split another’s face from the chin up. The last Redeemer faltered and turned to run.

Knight spun, flinging the kyoketsu in an arc that decapitated the man.

Another Heart of Redeemers taken down.

Phoebe landed beside him, the distortion of her grav-net fading in an instant. “You could have waited for me.”

“I can handle it.” Besides, he couldn’t place their baby in danger.

Word had come of Angel ships engaging the Adversary fleet. Neither side seemed to care much about human casualties anymore. Planets, even entire star systems had been swept away in the chaos. The Adversary had used some form of black hole generators to swallow suns. The Hell he had unleashed now devoured the universe.

The death total had grown beyond all measure—the NER couldn’t even guess the state of most of the former Mizraim Empire. And thousands upon thousands of ships had invaded from Asherah, apparently under command of the Adversary. He’d thought a bold move the only way to stop the Angels. It seemed he’d vastly underestimated the threat posed by the Adversary.

He and Phoebe had agreed the turmoil was their best chance to drive the Redeemers from Ekron. It was clear the Angels no longer cared about conquest. They made no attempt to aid their beleaguered followers. So for more than a week Knight had been helping the remaining Sentinel units in the systematic slaughter of Redeemers and Gogmagog. In a way, it was a relief. A clear enemy to fight.

A foe that could be killed.

“Excuse me, ninja boy. I’m a Sentinel. Spec ops. Very special ops. I’m a big ass hero, you know?”

“Yeah.” She was his hero, but he wasn’t about to tell her that. She was the person he should have been his whole life. A warrior, for certain, but one fighting for a cause that mattered. Not an enforcer—a soldier. “You do have a nice ass, hero.”

“Obviously. We should get off the streets. I—” She held up a hand, then tapped her comm. “Dana here.” After a pause she nodded. “Thank you. We’ll be right there.” She looked back at Knight. “Team Seven found another group of refugees holed up beneath a restaurant. Maybe my parents …”

Knight had helped her search for them since arriving here, but their apartment had been empty, with no word on where they’d gone. “How far?”

“Three blocks. This way.” She trotted down the street, sticking to back alleys and avoiding patrols. She might not have been the ghost he was, but she knew something about going unseen. Sentinel spec ops training at its finest.

They paused at the edge of an alley, watching a Redeemer Heart run by. The seven men and women passed at a trot, casting glances back over their shoulder. No doubt fearful of the constant Sentinel ambushes they faced in this city.

“Looks like someone’s in a hurry,” Phoebe said.

Hard to watch a city if you were too scared to patrol.

“That it?” he said, pointing to a building ahead. It was seven stories tall—small for this city—and lit with shimmering red lights proclaiming the place the Lion’s Den. The lights seemed to come from within the crystal of the building itself, creating a bleeding reflection that filtered up several stories and formed into the shape of a lion’s mane.

“Yup, yup. My Mom and Dad brought us here a few times when we were kids. They have onion soup that could knock your pants off.”

“Really.”

“Yup. People used to run out of there naked from the waist down.”

Wouldn’t last long like that on this planet. Knight made a dash across the street and toward the entrance. When he felt Phoebe close behind him, he tapped the thick door and it slid open. Like most places here, it had a sealed entry hall to preserve interior heat.

He peeked through a window in the inner door. A host stood behind a stand, separated from the dining hall by a red curtain. Knight popped free his pulse pistol and strode over to the host, Phoebe just behind him.

The Icie host glanced over his shoulder, then waved Knight closer. “Redeemers are in the main room, and a Gog stalks near the washrooms. Take the servers’ entrance to the left. Go through the kitchen, and inside through the walk-in.”

Knight looked back to Phoebe.

“Can you take out the Gog without alerting the Redeemers?”

Knight unformed his helmet just so she could see him roll his eyes. “Which way to the washrooms?”

“Beyond the coat closet there.”

Coat closet. Perfect. Knight smirked, grabbed a parka out of the closet, wrapping it tight to disguise his Sentinel uniform. Phoebe nodded and took off to find her family.

Knight slipped down the hall, strolling as if he had no care in the world. As he approached the washroom, the hair on the back of his neck rose. The creature was near. Maybe a man who kept his coat would be just suspicious enough to watch. He stepped into the men’s room. A slight disturbance passed in the air behind him before the door slid closed.

A short tiled hall led into the washroom proper. Knight took a few steps down it, then spun and lunged in the direction he felt the creature. It never had time to react. He pinned its throat with his forearm and pounded multiple body blows into the lizard-thing. Its camouflage faltered and it slipped from the wall. Knight grabbed the creature, wrapped an arm around its throat, and squeezed.

A man walked around the corner and then jolted as he saw the scene. His eyes met Knight’s, and he stood stock still. An Icie—local—and scared. The man swallowed, eyes wide.

Knight jerked his head over his shoulder, indicating the man to pass on by. The Icie wouldn’t say a word. Probably have a story to tell his family when he got home, though. Good. Let the word spread.

The Gog had stilled—dead. Knight hefted its body and carried it into the washroom, then threw it in a stall. He flipped the mag lock on the door from the inside, leapt up and caught the lip of the stall, then crawled over the top and dropped down. It would take a while for anyone to figure that out.

He slipped back out of the washroom and followed the directions the host had given to the kitchen. When he got there, cooks eyed him with suspicion, even hatred. They must think he was a Redeemer. He unbuttoned the parka and tossed it aside, revealing his uniform.

Whispers passed among the kitchen, words he couldn’t quite catch. One of the cooks indicated the walk-in fridge. All eyes stayed on him. What the void was their problem? He entered the fridge, then found the way open to a set of stairs leading down. A Sentinel stood guard, though Knight couldn’t recognize the man through his helmet. He just nodded and passed him, hurrying down the steps.

Downstairs a large lounge housed dozens of families, hundreds of Icies. It took him a few moments to locate Phoebe, who had her arms around her parents. They were laughing, holding each other.

“You used to love the ice cream here,” her mother said.

“Ice cream?” Knight said, approaching. “On this planet?”

Phoebe turned to him, an eyebrow quirked. “Sure. Why not?”

Off rotation Icies.

Phoebe’s father watched him with obvious recognition, but no warmth.

Had he really made that bad an impression? Knight nodded at him, then sat on the couch beside them.

“Phoebe tells me … You two are having a baby.”

“Yeah.” Shouldn’t he be more glad of grandchildren? Wasn’t that how parents were supposed to feel?

The man cleared his throat. “Is that … wise?”

“Dad!” Phoebe said.

“I just mean, under the circumstances.”

The war? “Our lives are in danger, that’s true,” Knight said. “But we …” The hair on his neck was standing on end again. Something was wrong.

People were watching him. Everyone was watching him. And not just because he was another Sentinel—they weren’t watching him and Phoebe. They were watching him.

In the corner of his eye a man moved, lunging toward him with a kitchen knife. Time slowed for Knight, and he watched the man advance in slow-motion. His heart pounded. But it seemed so unreal. A simple shift of his arm caught the man’s wrist. A twist and the Icie fell to his knees, dropping the weapon.

Phoebe jumped to her feet. “What was that?”

Another man rushed Knight.

Knight released the first attacker, who fell clutching his wrist, then backfisted the new man’s chest. He crumpled into a heap.

Others had begun to form a circle around him. They clutched kitchen utensils, make-shift weapons, or bare fists. “Pariah!” someone shouted. The word passed through the lounge like a chant. More and more civilians edged closer to him.

Fuck. He’d lowered his helmet. The civilians … Knight tapped his suit to reform his helmet and conceal his face.

“Knight …” Phoebe said.

He knew. He didn’t want to hurt these people. Another man attacked him, and another, in a mob. Knight flipped a man over his shoulder, tripped another, and landed a chop between the shoulder blades of a third. He scrambled forward, flipping over the crowd and grabbed rafters overhead. He swung and leapt to reach the stairs and rushed up them, past the Sentinel who—thankfully—made no move to bar his way.

Rachel had said people would blame him, but he never realized how badly. It seemed a lifetime ago they begged his blessings. Now, they’d sooner put his head on a spike. He dashed back out through the lobby and into the street. His comm buzzed a second later.

“Knight?” Phoebe asked. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” But his presence here would likely do more harm than good. How could he help anyone if an entire planet was determined to kill him? They thought him a servant of the Adversary. He’d done what he had to … The only way he could see to stop the Angels. “I’ve got to call in Hertz, have her pick me up.”

Not only the civilians—if the Redeemers knew he was here, they’d only intensify their efforts to hold this place. Simply being on this planet would doom it. Being on any planet would bring wrath and war.

“Not you,” Phoebe said. “Us. You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

Knight swallowed. God, maybe Phoebe was the only one left in the universe who didn’t think him a villain. “Your family—”

“Now I know they’re fine, Knight. And you’re part of my family too. Where are you? I’m coming to meet you.”

Family? Him?

He slumped in an alley. He had a family …

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-SIX

July 2nd

After so much has happened, I guess I finally understand why Raziel did all the things he did. Why he hid the Ark, why he didn’t awaken the other Angels. And why he formed the Lazarus Group. Maybe, if Apollyon had given him more time, maybe there would be others like Knight. Ready to fight for our future.

The Sephirot met the Wake of Stars on the outer spiral of the Milky Way. Rachel needed to get back to the front. She had to drive the Angels from the NER, and the distraction Knight had provided was her best chance. However misguided his decision may have been, she had allowed him to make it, and now she had to take advantage of it.

But before that, she needed her full crew back.

Phoebe had told her the people of Ekron had attacked Knight in a mob. The Gehennan didn’t respond to her calls, so Rachel had gone through Phoebe. And she swore she’d seen a hint of a tear in the Icie’s eyes when she spoke of the way mankind had turned its back on the man she loved. Not so long ago they’d tried to call him navi. Now he was the enemy of all humanity and the Angels, too. From prophet to Pariah in the blink of an eye. How fickle the public could be.

Maybe Rachel should have tried harder to dissuade him from his course … But it had seemed necessary at the time. As all her steps had seemed. And in hindsight, she was always a fool.

She awaited the shuttle just outside the hangar. As soon as the airlock sealed, she ran forward to meet them. Phoebe stepped out first, followed by Knight, who had his helmet up. Hiding his face.

Rachel ran over and tried to embrace him.

Knight pushed her away. “We have work to do.” He stalked past her.

She turned to Phoebe, who clenched her teeth. Her teal eyes offered a volume of sorrow, the emotion rushing out of the Icie in a torrent that nearly sent Rachel to her knees. Instead, she threw her arms around Phoebe and held her close, as much to steady herself as the poor girl.

And she had felt almost nothing from Knight. The closed, guarded wall he had once carried, lifetimes ago on Gehenna—it felt like that, stronger than ever.

Not hard to understand. Rachel had lost part of herself too, back at Asherah. Knight had lost his illusions, and Rachel had lost her future. Maybe they both had—since there would be nowhere left in the universe safe for Knight.

“Captain,” Ensign Barry said over her comm. “There’s another ship requesting docking. Registered to Galizur Blake.”

Raziel. So he had come back after all. She could only pray he had more answers than she did. “Signal him in.”

She walked with Phoebe back to the quarters she shared with Knight. The Icie said nothing on the way, so Rachel filled her in on recent events. The silence was unnerving—especially from Phoebe.

The Icie stepped into her quarters, and for just a moment, Rachel shared Knight’s rush of relief. It closed off when he saw Rachel. He shut down and put the wall back up. But Rachel had felt it—that sense of belonging Phoebe gave him. At least he had that. Like Rachel herself had once had …

Knight sat on the floor, legs folded like he would meditate. His helmet was down, finally, but his eyes were cold.

“Thanks for coming to get us,” Phoebe said, and sat down beside Knight.

“You’re part of my crew.” They were more than that. “You’re … my people.”

Knight cocked his head and looked at her strangely. She couldn’t read his emotions. It was warmth and confusion and something deeper … Not the lust he’d once felt for her, but a tenderness buried under a mountain of doubt. An emotion that had no place in her former bodyguard.

Rachel knelt in front of him and pressed her palm to his cheek. Knight recoiled, just a little, and Phoebe quirked an eyebrow, but Rachel maintained the contact. “You are not alone, Ezekiel. We are in this together. All of us made our decisions as best we were able.”

The door buzzed. Rachel sighed and rose. She waved open the door, and Raziel strode in, his Angel guise revealed.

“I’m glad you’re back,” she said.

“You fool!” he said, pointing a finger at Knight.

The Gehennan stood, his fingers curling as he fell into a fighting pose.

“I created you to fight the Adversary and you have embraced them like a favored son. You have betrayed the universe!”

“Enough!” Rachel said. “Knight did what he thought was right with the information we had at the time. You want to blame someone—blame yourself. Blame your secrets and lies and the insatiable arrogance of Angel kind. Your people tried to enslave ours and we fought back the only way we could.”

She’d hoped Raziel would have cooled down. She’d hoped he would be a valuable ally to their cause. Perhaps he was still more Angel than human. She should have known.

The Angel scoffed. “By releasing the Adversary? By unleashing Hell itself on this universe? This is fighting back? You have damned yourselves and us along with you.”

Rachel shook her head. “No. This is your mess, Angel. You created this Hell, now you fight it. And when you’re done destroying each other, the universe will be left for humans. And we will be better for all of your alien races being gone.”

“Rachel, Rachel …” Raziel stepped closer to her, his shoulders slumping. All the fight seemed to have gone out of him. “Aliens? Is that what you think of us? You truly are a fool, Rachel Jordan. Angels are human.”

Her mouth hung open, but all she could do was grunt.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-SEVEN

Of all the things Raziel might have told me … I should have been prepared for this. I should have seen it. I already knew Angels were not divine. I just thought them aliens. Aliens like the Lotan, who they made their enemy. I suspect in the same spirit of ruthless subjugation with which they made enemies of the Adversary and of humanity as well.

For a long time, longer than she could measure, Rachel stalked the halls of the Sephirot. Raziel had claimed the Angels were human. But when she pressed him, the damned Angel just clammed up again. All he would say was that only evolution and technology separated her and him. And knowledge.

But Raziel had also claimed to have lived for billions of years. How could both things be true? How could he be human and be billions of years old? And if it were true … then did that mean Angels were some kind of genetic predecessor to modern humans? So little of their history before the Exodus remained. Could Angels have come to Eden—to Earth—in prehistoric times and seeded human genetic code? Their own genetic code, without the enhancements their science had made to it. Or was something else going on here?

In the end, she wandered into the brig.

Caleb was there, shivering on the floor, hands wrapped around his head. To some extent he might have brought his suffering on himself. In greed and arrogance he had chosen his path … But no one deserved the torments of Hell he faced now. And but for the grace of God, it could have been her. She had turned to QI, but she might just as easily have gone to Jericho in her own moment of weakness. In his place, could she have been convinced to take the implants? Not so long ago she had considered the possibility that cybernetics were not evil at all … that the Angels merely wanted them all for themselves.

She tapped her comm. “Jordan to Suzuki.”

“Leah here.”

“Caleb seems to be really suffering. He may need more medication.”

The Amphie was quiet for a moment. “Rachel, I’ve already given him sedatives. They don’t seem to have much effect. Giving him more could harm him.”

He was already being harmed. At this point, the kindest thing might be a MAG slug to the brain. Rachel shook herself. A disgusting thought … “He’s not well.”

“Okay. I’ll come check him out again.”

“Can you remove his implants?”

“Maybe. But without eyes …”

“Yeah. Got it.”

Rachel flipped off her comm. Just beyond, Phoebe’s brother Ezra sat fidgeting. He scratched at his implants as if they tormented him. Maybe they did. Probably he faced the same Hell Caleb did.

But Ezra had willingly sided with Apollyon, the new master of Asherah. Maybe it was unfair to hold him responsible for David’s death. But part of her reveled in his suffering. Let him feel the pain he deserved—a pain dwarfed by the emptiness in her own heart.

She moved on to Jeremiah’s cell. He’d been docile enough, so she’d arranged a tablet for him. Limited Mazzaroth access—he couldn’t make calls, but he could watch the news feeds and vids. It seemed cruel to keep him locked away from any news of the universe, given how things were. Or perhaps letting him see the truth—as Armageddon was fought around them—was the greater cruelty. Perhaps she should have sheltered him from the harsh reality.

He looked up from the tablet, staring at her face, then tossed it aside. “Rachel? Are you all right?” That almost felt like genuine concern seeping off him. To see him like this, actually caring for her …

Was that even possible?

She tapped the smart glass to open the door and moved to sit on his cot beside him.

“What’s happened, Rach?”

Rachel ran a hand through her hair, mussing it up. What was she even doing here? Jeremiah had been her enemy for so long.

Her brother put his arm around her shoulders. He hadn’t done that since they were children. The last time was when her mother died. Her heart seized at the comforting weight of his arm on her shoulders.

“Is … is the Angel back?”

“Raziel?” She swallowed, but didn’t sit up. “Yeah, he’s back. He told me …” Hadn’t her brother suffered enough, too? He’d had his view of the holy universe shattered. The core upon which he’d built his life and principles had crumbled and now he lingered in a prison cell, with little hope of a future. If humanity even survived this war, he would likely spend the rest of his life in prison for assaulting Sentinels.

“What? What did he say?”

Reverence and hope and concern filled the room, suffusing her in a maelstrom of conflicting emotions she could not deal with right now. He still worshipped Raziel. The Angel had broken her brother, and Jeremiah clung to his every word like gospel.

Rachel shrugged out of his arm and rose, then paced around the cell. “He’s not a god!”

“I know that.”

“No—you don’t. They’re just people, Miah. Good and bad, people who made mistakes.”

“Maybe.” He shrugged. “But Rachel … with living for millennia would come wisdom, too.”

She jerked a hand through her hair and continued her pacing. “Wisdom. Arrogance, pride, vanity. Self-aggrandizing secrecy and manipulation! There is nothing divine about the Angels, Miah. There never was.”

“You’re wrong, sis. To understand the divine is to be one step closer to it.”

She snorted. “You think they understand God?”

“I think anyone who lived that long would have to be closer to understanding than I am.”

“I …” Well shit. Since when did her sycophantic zealot brother make well-reasoned arguments? And when did he stop judging her? Could a person really change so completely?

But then, she already knew the answer to that. All she had to do was look at Knight.

“Rachel,” Jeremiah said. “I hope one day I see the Eden you were fighting for.”

She paused in her pacing and shut her eyes. The New Eden Republic could still be that Eden. Mankind could still build a luminous future for themselves, free of outside oppression. But only if they could survive this war.

“I have to go,” she said.

“I know. But you’ll be back. When it’s done. I was wrong, Rachel. You weren’t khapiru. You were navi, and I was too blind to see it.”

Navi. A prophet.

It had worked out so well for Knight.

She raised her hand to wave it off. “I’m not. I’m not anything, Miah. I’m just a person. We’re all just people. Even Raziel.”

With that she left him. He was off rotation to call her navi, but his faith meant something.

Maybe … it meant everything.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-EIGHT

July 15th

We have at last begun to make progress against the Angel invasion. Soon, we will force them to capitulate. We will force them to see reason. And if Knight’s actions force them to accept us as equals, it will all be worth it.

Another Angel ship imploded, consumed by its Singularity Drive. Rachel had no sympathy. She’d given them the chance to back down or join her. Instead, the Angels had tried to reclaim Ekron. And enough was enough. She was through playing with these people. Because that’s all they were—people, grown arrogant over countless ages of immortality. Maybe her brother was right—maybe they had something to teach. But thus far, the lessons had come at too high a price.

She’d lost David. And he’d been the best of all the Sentinels. The best man she’d ever known.

“The Redeemer ship is trying to evacuate its people,” Phoebe said.

“Good. Let them go.” Officially, Phoebe was back in command here. For the most part, though, the Icie seemed to defer to Rachel. Maybe it was kismet that drove Rachel to this position. Her brother would claim so. Or maybe everyone could just see how damned pissed she was.

“Captain,” Ensign Barry said. “There’s an incoming transmission from the NER. Ambassador O’Malley for Lieutenant Jordan.”

Phoebe glanced at Rachel.

Degana. Rachel prayed for some good news for once. “I’ll take it in the war room.” She strode across the bridge and into the war room, then accessed her personal Mazzaroth.

The Icie Ambassador appeared on screen, though at first she was looking away. She mopped sweat from her forehead with one arm, then turned to Rachel, eyes wide. “Yo-you’ve seen it?”

“Seen what?”

“The Fornax Dwarf, Rachel. They … our colonies …”

Were they under attack now? The NER had a couple hundred systems aligned with them in the Fornax. It made a convenient buffer between the Milky Way and Triangulum, making it more important than its sparse population would normally be. Unfortunately, it was far enough away it would take days to get there. Meaning any NER ships under attack were likely on their own.

“What happened?”

Degana shook her head. “I’m sending you the report from the Absolution of Night. You …”

The transmission shifted, showing a record of a Sentinel cruiser stationed in the Fornax. It appeared to be making standard patrols when the Conduit Gate opened. An Angel ship shot out from it. At least, at first it looked like an Angel ship. But it was covered with eyes, and they looked at her. They looked at her, as if seeing her through the record itself. Impossible, of course.

Another ship came and another. Dozens. Hundreds. Asheran cruisers and destroyers and Leviathans. Those had to be Adversary ships descending on the handful of Sentinels protecting this system. The Asherans opened fire on the Absolution, but the Adversary ship just kept going. Right past the protectors. They began firing some kind of pulse into the star. The sun shimmered, turning blue.

“Angels above,” the Absolution’s captain said. “They’re going to collapse the star. Get us—”

Static began to fill the record. The Absolution rocked under heavy fire.

And then the sun detonated. A nova fled outward, almost instantly sucked back in by a gravitational well. Tidal forces began to form around the nascent black hole. Rachel’s mouth hung open. The planets in the system went dark and began to spiral inward, sucked toward dissolution. Sucked into Hell.

“We’re caught …” Too much static filled the recording.  “… the event horizon …”

The transmission cut off.

Rachel tried to speak, but it came out as a croak. The Angels had wiped out entire planets. Now the Adversary was taking down star systems? It was simply impossible. God would not allow wholesale destruction on such a scale.

“We, uh …” Degana said. “There’s other reports from Fornax. A small number of ships made it out of the galaxy.”

“Ma-made it out?” What the void did that mean?

“Mazzaroth access has become increasingly spotty there. Our best estimates are that more than twenty thousand ships descended on the galaxy. We think they’ve taken out over a thousand star systems in the same way, heading toward the galactic core. The last transmission we got came from the Hand of Radiance. They said … I, uh, I’ll play it for you.”

Rachel’s screen filled with static. The transmission was audio only, and bits of static broke up every few words. “This is Captain Conway … my final transmission … the Adversary has been bombarding … the galactic core appears to be undergoing … exponential expansion … Current estimates indicate the black hole will consume the …” The transmission cut off.

“What the void was that?” Rachel asked.

“We think the core expanded to swallow the Hand.”

“It did what?” Black holes expanded, but slowly. Not on the speed of ships.

“We believe the Adversary has found a way to cause a galactic core to repeatedly double in size, swallowing the galaxy. Our scientists are piecing together the data, Rachel, but I …” Degana swallowed, then rubbed her face. Was she crying? “Our estimate is the entire galaxy will be swallowed in a year.”

Rachel took a step backward, stumbled, and fell on her ass. That was impossible. It was … it couldn’t happen.

Twenty thousand enemy ships. Whole galaxies becoming gateways to Hell. It was a nightmare. And would the hole just keep growing after that?

She couldn’t breathe. She tried to suck air down, but her chest closed off. Nothing was getting to her lungs.

“Rachel!” Degana shouted. “Rachel!”

She gasped, trying to swallow. They had done this. They had released the Adversary. They had … she had thought … it was their chance at freedom.

Hands clutched over her chest, she curled into a ball. Air. Breath. She needed … The edge of her vision began to fade.

“Rachel!”

She heard the door open, but she couldn’t look up. Everything was going dark. Her heart pounded so fast she knew it would explode. She’d die. She’d die and go to Hell for all her sins. For damning the whole human race. And they would all join her there.

An iron grip hefted her off the ground by her shoulders.

Be calm.

The voice echoed in her mind.

Be still.

Slowly, agonizingly, her heart and breath slowed, and her vision began to return. Raziel held her aloft, looking into her eyes. He drew her close to his face. “Behold the price of freedom.” He dropped her, and she fell to her knees, the impact stinging her.

Pain. Pain was good. Something to focus on. To fill her mind and keep her from reaching out to oblivion again.

She grit her teeth and shut her eyes as a shudder took her again. Get up. She had to fix this. She pushed herself up to face the Angel. “Help us.”

Raziel shook his head. “It’s too late. The Angels are going to withdraw.”

“What do you mean withdraw?”

“They’re leaving the Local Group—giving humanity up for lost. They plan to consolidate their forces beyond known space. Perhaps start anew in a different universe.”

They were going? The Angels were going to leave mankind to its fate. God—not long ago that was exactly what Rachel wanted. But that fate was all too apparent now. “No! Raziel, we can’t let them do that.”

“What would you have me do?” The Angel shook his head, locking her with his narrowed gaze.

The Angels would never listen now. And she couldn’t blame them—in their eyes mankind had betrayed them. Maybe part of them thought this was a just punishment for the sins of humanity. But Angels were human, too, and they had their fair share of sins.

“The Ark,” she said. “It’s the only thing powerful enough to stand up against the Adversary ships.”

“Not by itself. They will not agree to risk it.”

“Then we have to take the Ark.” If the Angels wouldn’t use their flagship against the Adversary, she would. She’d flown it before. She could do it again.

The Angel blew out a long breath, then shut his eyes.

“Raziel. Please. We have to do this, and you know it. It’s the only hope for mankind. If what you said is true, if you are the same as us, then help us.”

“I …”

She grabbed his hands and held them. They were warm, and a little rough, but the same as any man’s. Because, despite living for billions of years, he was just a man. Confusion and fear seeped through his mental shields, tingling her mind. It was his fear, not her own. She had to keep it in perspective. She had more than enough fear for herself.

“Please.”

“If you could get aboard, make it to the bridge, I could give you a transceiver implant. It would let you wrest control from Muriel—assuming you can incapacitate him first. Even with the implant, you are not a strong enough Psych to overpower him mentally.”

“An implant? You told me to never use cybernetics.”

“Yes, I did. The moment you implant it, you will be at risk to the Beast, Rachel. Use it to access the ship, then remove it the moment you’ve secured it. I won’t lie to you—the temptation, the horrors it will show you … they will haunt you for the rest of your life. If you do this … But I don’t even have a way to get you on board the Ark. The Sephirot would not likely survive an assault.”

Cybernetics. She’d have to plug herself in to the same monstrous technology that Angels now needed to live. At least it seemed to be temporary in her case. After all she had done, paying that price was the least she could do to atone. If there was any way to save the universe from Hell, she had to take it.

“I’ll find a way onto the ship. Just get me the implant.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-NINE

I have badly misjudged the Angels once again. If they abandon us, abandon this universe, we are doomed.

The Mazzaroth screen was filled with darkness. Knight sat in front of it, staring, waiting, as it chimed on the channel the Lotan had given him. Phoebe and Rachel sat around the war room table, but it fell to him to make this call. He had become the ambassador to the Lotan—God knew how that happened—and he could only be sure the creature would speak to him.

Still, the minutes he waited seemed like hours.

“Maybe they’re busy,” Phoebe said. “Could be we called during dinner time. Or maybe they were having a good bunk romp. I wonder how that works with multiple heads. Or, you know, do they even have genders? Can you even imagine life without sex?”

“Probably more easily than you could,” Rachel said. “Now please shut up.”

Knight folded his hands in his lap. Rachel had shown him and Phoebe the reports from the Fornax. Phoebe seemed to refuse to even acknowledge it. As if it was all a dream. But Knight knew. He and the Lotan had done this. They’d warned him there was danger, but he didn’t understand. They were hard to communicate with. Maybe the same misunderstanding had led to their war with the Angels in the first place. If so, that had, in turn, led to the creation of the Adversary.

He had to try to avoid repeating the Angels’ mistakes. He had to learn to listen to what these aliens were saying.

At last, the darkness on his screen became the amorphous fluid he associated with the Lotan. This time, it took much less time for the serpentine heads to appear onscreen.

“Greetings. Human.”

Knight rose, dropping his hands to his side, and took a step toward the screen.

“Lotan. Do you have a name?”

The creature was quiet for a moment. Then at last the heads spoke. “Not in the. Sense you could. Understand. You may call me. Lotan.”

“I fear we made a mistake in destroying the seal.”

“There is. Danger.”

No shit. A little elaboration on the point before he acted might have helped. “Do you know the Angels’ Ark?”

“I know.”

“We want to take control of the ship. Can your people help us do that?”

Again, the creature grew quiet. Knight could have sworn he saw one head look at another. Was it having some kind of debate with itself? Did it have multiple brains? A chair shifted behind him. Probably Rachel squirming to ask all the questions he left unvoiced. Girl wanted answers to every mystery in the universe. Knight had begun to think some things were better left unknown to mankind.

“The Angels are not. Our friends. They do not. Listen.”

“We want to be your friends, Lotan.”

“If we help you. You. Will. Listen.”

What was the creature saying? That it wanted to be understood? Or maybe it wanted to rule? “What do mean, ‘listen’?”

“We are older. Humans are young. You will accept. Guidance.”

Guidance. What a friendly euphemism for control.

“No,” Rachel said. “No. We let the Angels guide us and it led to three thousand years of—”

Knight cut her off with a glare. She wanted him to do this. Well, he would do it. Maybe she was right. Maybe the Lotan would turn out to be as domineering as the Angels had. But right now, the choice was between accepting guidance and accepting oblivion. In truth, it was the very same choice his ancestors must have made, back when Eden was under attack. To welcome foreign saviors, because, almost anything was better than extinction.

“We will … listen.”

“Good. Prepare. Yourself.”

The transmission cut off. Right. Well, Knight was always prepared for a fight. It was the reason he’d been born. Raziel had groomed him as a warrior from before he was even conceived. He’d manipulated Knight’s parents into breeding and now …

“Are you all right?” Phoebe asked.

Knight shook himself. “Yeah, love. I’m fine. But I need to see Raziel.”

“Knight,” Rachel said, “are you sure about the Lotan?”

“We don’t have any other choice.” He left the room and took a lift to Raziel’s suite.

The Angel opened the door before he even got there. Raziel’s wings were hidden, and he sat at his desk, looking worn and ragged. Beaten down by a crusade that had spanned the life of the universe.

“I wish I had not done it,” he said, at last.

Raziel snorted. “Yes, Pariah. I imagine everyone wishes that.”

Arrogant son of a bitch. “If you had told us the truth in the first place—”

The Angel raised a hand. “Yes. There is more than enough blame to go around. In ignorance and pride you committed sins not so unlike our own, and perhaps with greater reason.”

“Why? Why not just tell us everything from the beginning, Raziel? All of this could have been avoided.”

“I already told you … our greatest sin.” Pride. “Do not follow so closely in our footsteps. You will not like where the path takes you.”

Knight leaned on the table, drawing close to the Angel. “You speak of the sin of pride—but you made me! You chose to play God and create a person. Why? Why did you do this to me?”

“You were supposed to be a weapon. I knew what Apollyon was trying to do, the Zuzim Project. He was creating cybernetic super-soldiers. He worked in secret for centuries, and so did I.”

So Knight was no different than the Asheran forces. A weapon, engineered by Angels, to fight their wars.

“Oh, you are different,” Raziel said. “What I did was long forbidden. I used the knowledge of what we had done to our own genetic code to create an evolved bloodline. Apollyon might have been able to mimic some of our implants to create soldiers, but I created something more. Something to bridge the gap between your evolution of mankind, and our own.” The Angel reached under the table and pulled out a curved short sword in a scabbard. “I had this made for you. Back before I knew how badly you would betray me.”

“I didn’t betray anyone, Angel.” He snatched the sword and pulled it from its scabbard. A simple switch expanded it into a full katana, much like he’d had back on Gehenna.

“No,” Raziel said. “Better than those. The mono edge is reinforced, the tempered metal nigh unbreakable. It should stand up even to Angel wings. That is what you plan to fight now. Angels. Though not even you can take on the dozens who remain on the Ark.”

“I have to try.” He owed it to everyone. Maybe Rachel could use the Ark to stop the Adversary. Maybe they could save the universe. It’s why he had become the Pariah. Because the personal cost didn’t matter. He was a weapon. A weapon to save mankind.

“I know.” Raziel rose. “There’s so little time left. All I can do now is try to atone for my mistakes.” He walked over to a footlocker beside his bed, entered a code, and popped it open. “Do you know how Apollyon took the Ark in the first place?”

Knight folded his arms.

Raziel pulled some kind of device from the footlocker. It was the size of a grenade, but thick wires spiraled out of it, wrapping around like the double helix of a DNA strand. In the center was some kind of console. “It’s a QEMP—quantum electromagnetic pulse bomb. Angel cybernetics are shielded against normal EM radiation. This device pulses through quantum tunnels, shutting down electronics in range.”

Electronics. Including cybernetic implants?

“Do you understand what I am giving you, Nephilim? This constitutes the ultimate betrayal of my race.”

“Apollyon used one of these on the Ark. It disabled all the implants.”

“Yes. And my people cannot live without those implants. I returned too late to stop him, though I drove him off the ship. I was forced to put the other Angels into cryo sleep, so their systems could recover. By the time that was done … Mankind already saw the Angels as Vanished.”

And so Raziel had chosen to see how mankind would adapt without the Angels. Much to his disappointment, Knight was sure.

“So can we fire this at the Ark?”

“No. You’ll have to detonate it as close to the center of the Ark as possible. Near the Singularity Drive, if possible. Failing that, the bridge should give you a decent blast radius. Enough to disable most Angels on the ship. If you do so, you must get us to the cryo chambers. We cannot live long otherwise.”

Us. Raziel would be affected too. Which meant he planned to come along. To fight.

Knight tucked the grenade into a storage compartment in his suit. “I’ll make it my last resort.”

Raziel nodded. “Leave me. I must commune with the others.”

Was he going to tell them …?

“Get out, Pariah!”

Knight blew out a breath, then did as Raziel asked. The Angel was right. There was not much time left. He needed to see Phoebe.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY

July 17th

We have drawn them out, forced them away from the Conduit. This may be our last chance. We cannot fail this time.

Thanks to the modifications Phoebe had made, the Sephirot’s view screen revealed the outline of Lotans. They remained invisible to the naked eye, of course. But the screen allowed Rachel to see the basic shape. Hundreds of jellyfish-like creatures swarmed around the Ark.

NER ships continued to fire on Redeemers, separating them from the Ark, while the Lotan forced it further away from the Conduit. Cornering it. There would be no escape.

Rachel pushed the joystick forward, taking them in.

Explosions rocked along the Ark’s hull as the Lotan’s strange energy weapons lit it up.

“What the void are they shooting?” she asked.

“I’m not sure,” Phoebe said. “It seems to be similar to our antiproton cannons. Plus the tendrils themselves seem to create breaches in the Ark’s skin.”

That was putting it lightly. The jellyfish ships wrapped around the Ark like an octopus trying to crush a shellfish in its arms. Wisps of gas and plasma evaporated off the Ark’s hull wherever the Lotan squeezed.

But it was costing them. Plasma bursts from the Ark shot down another Lotan. Rachel had lost count of how many had vanished from the screen. Fifty? More?

“Phoebe, take the controls,” Rachel said. “I’ve got to get down to the hangar with Knight.”

“Yup, fine. But I expect him back in one piece. I mean it. I’ll kill you dead if you let something happen to him.”

“Yeah, got it.”

Rachel rose to allow Phoebe to sit, then headed for the lift. Inside, she fingered the implant Raziel had given her. A small black circle, with prongs she was supposed to press into her neck. It would burrow in and attach to her nervous system, allowing her full psychic access to the Ark.

And he’d said installing the implant wouldn’t hurt too badly. She’d asked. Repeatedly. Somehow, she suspected he was lying. The prongs were only about two centimeters long, but the thought of impaling them into her neck was … unappealing. Her stomach churned.

She tucked the sickening thing back into the shielded box the Angel had given her, then into a compartment in her suit.

Down in the hangar, Knight, Raziel, and a group of four Sentinels had already gathered by the Angel’s ship.

“With the distraction the Lotan provide, I should be able to get us into the hangar.”

Grim determination seeped off Knight in waves that made her glower. The Gehennan had strapped a new sword to his back. Throwing knives covered his thighs, and grenades ran along his belt. She and the other Sentinels were there to help, but in the end, they all relied on Knight and Raziel to face the Angels. That kind of pressure would break most people.

But then, she had her own part to play. She had to take control of the Ark once again. Its presence in her mind had cost her last time. It had become a part of her, an addiction she was far too eager to embrace again. And that frightened her—just how much she missed its warmth in her mind.

She nodded at Knight, then filed into the ship and strapped herself in. Ironic—the last time she’d fled the Ark had been in this same ship. David had flown it then. David, the love of her life, betrayed and murdered for this war. And in his name, she was going to end this.

The others strapped in, and Raziel sat at the controls. The Angel didn’t ask if they were ready. He just launched the ship out of the docking chamber.

And then they were in space. The battle continued to rage around them. The Lotan ships—which she suspected might be part of the aliens themselves—were faring poorly. But then, so was the Ark. Plasma leaked from a hundred breaches along its hull. An entire section of its skin had been peeled away, and Angels were sucked into space.

“Some segments are decompressed,” she said. “Helmets up.”

Raziel piloted through the mess of plasma and warheads filling the air, confident and sure as he slipped into the hangar.

The moment the ship jittered to a stop, the Sentinels popped their harnesses and rushed out. Redeemers and Magog swarmed toward them. Rachel leapt out and fired her pulse pistol, gunning down a howling Magog and then a man.

Knight charged forward, pulse pistol in one hand, katana in another. He shot a Magog, decapitated a Redeemer, and kept running. So fast. Inhumanly fast on his feet. Rachel shook herself, trying to focus on the remaining assailants. MAG rounds ricocheted off her suit. She shot the attacking Magog and the doglike creature collapsed, a hole in his chest.

And then a trio of Angels flew in, gliding on shimmering metal wings. “Betrayer!” one spat at Raziel.

Their own Angel had spread his wings as well. A single beat carried him into the air. The wind knocked Rachel down, and she stumbled.

“Get to the core!” Raziel shouted at Knight.

Knight ran as Rachel climbed back to her feet. An Angel landed in front of him, jabbing with its wings so fast she could barely see the motion. Metal clanged against the deck, throwing up a shower of sparks. Knight twisted, slid between the Angels’ legs, and severed one with his sword. Fast as that he was up and running again, even before the Angel had collapsed to the deck.

Rachel shot down another Redeemer. Sentinels formed up around her. “We’ve got to get to the bridge! It’s this way.”

She glanced back at Raziel, who collided in midair with his two Angel attackers. They collapsed in a heap, slamming into the deck. Metal wings sheared against each other, the sound mind-rending. They moved fast—almost as fast as Knight. It had turned into a melee of wrestling and chaos and the shriek of metal.

A Sentinel grabbed her and pulled her down the corridor. “We can’t help him right now.”

The man was right. She ran toward the bridge. Sentinels cleared the path before her. They took down Magog and Redeemers with frightening efficiency.

And then an Angel blocked their way. The span of its wings almost filled the hall. Sentinels fired at it, and it wrapped its wings around itself, deflecting the pulses. It continued to advance on them, protected by its metal cocoon.

“Fall back!” she said.

The Sentinels at once began a fighting retreat, continuing to fire, preventing the Angel from rushing them. Fast as the Sentinels could shoot, the Angel was faster. Blocking every shot.

Rachel primed a plasma grenade. “Get ready to run on my mark,” she said over her comm. She flung it. “Run!”

She turned and made a break for it, the others beside her. A split second later the grenade erupted, and the Angel screamed. The shockwave sent Rachel stumbling forward. She spun around in time to see the Angel rising, though plasma burns covered its face. Fury lit its glowing eyes.

The Sentinels opened fire again, this time catching the Angel with a pulse between the eyes. It fell.

Rachel picked herself up. One down. “Press forward.”

More Redeemers tried to block the way. They fell in droves, but one of her Sentinels went down. A MAG round had breached his helmet. Rachel knelt by him. Never had a chance. Their kinetic shields were all giving out. Without those, any direct hit …

But they had no choice. Back down now and this was all for nothing.

And then some kind of shockwave erupted through the ship. The Ark shrieked and trembled, sending Redeemers and Sentinels alike tumbling to the deck. Rachel’s HUD winked out. Her suit wasn’t responding.

Knight must have fired off the QEMP. Everything would take a minute to reset. She rose and tried to fire at a Redeemer. Her pulse pistol was fried too. She rushed forward, jumped on the Redeemer, and brought her elbow down on his head. Sentinel training had given her some Merkabah basics. The other Sentinels recovered quickly, and the Redeemers fell before their superior skills.

A pair of Magog barreled around the corner. Sentinels charged right in, though the dog-men were stronger than ordinary humans. A Sentinel wrapped one of the dog-things in a strangle hold and brought it to its knees. Rachel walked over and looked the creature in the eyes. Despite its animal features, the eyes were human. Its mind at least partly that of a man. Rachel punched it in the nose.

They pushed on, charging onto the bridge. Muriel was there, lying on the floor, choking. Spasming as his organs failed. Two more Angels lay strewn about in similar condition. Raziel would be like this now. Incapacitated. Dying, unless they got him to the cyro chamber.

“Hold this room against any intruders.” She pulled the implant from the shielded box. Now or never.

Holy shit those were sharp-looking prongs. She’d come all this way to do this. She had to.

She retracted her helmet to expose her neck, then pressed the unholy thing there. Deep breaths. She could do this. She could do this. Knight had done his part. Raziel might well have died for this.

Okay.

Time.

She pushed the implant into her neck. It was like being jabbed with needles. The thing whirred, then sucked onto her skin. Electric fire surged through her veins. Her body convulsed and she fell to the deck. She tried to scream, but her throat seized up and only a gargle escape.

Her mind surged, her psionic senses reaching outward. It was there, just beyond her grasp.

The Ark is mine!

The Angel’s voice had already grown dim with his fading life signs, but the pressure slammed against her mind like a pulse cannon. A presence coiled through her sinuses and wrapped itself around her brain. Her vision faded as the Angel assaulted her. Flares of pain shot through her nervous system. The Angel had connected their minds powerfully, and he was pulling her down into oblivion with him.

But if he could do, so could she. Rachel reached out, sending a pulse of rage at the Angel. Muriel had ordered the destruction of New Rome. He had taken her home. Her family. Her world.

Burn, you bastard!

The pressure against her mind recoiled and the Angel’s thoughts seeped away into darkness.

Rachel touched the Ark. It was hers, once again.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-ONE

The weight of human destiny presses in on me. The voice of Hell echoes through my mind.

Rachel rubbed the implant at her neck. Raziel had told her to remove it as soon as the ship was hers. She knew she should. She could feel the Adversary edging ever closer to her. Its voice was a whisper at the back of her mind, offering her every dream she could imagine. Every answer she had so long been denied.

And that was the thing—there was no hope of further answers from Raziel. The Angel had been wounded so badly, she wasn’t certain he would survive, even in cryo sleep. Knight and the other Sentinels had begun the process of bringing the Angels to the cryo chamber while weeding out the last of the Redeemers and Gogmagog.

And if she took the implant out she would never know the truth.

Oh, she knew better than to give in to the Adversary. But this implant allowed her to make sense of the Ark. To bond with its consciousness in a way she had never quite managed on her own. Maybe that was always the temptation the Angels faced. Just a little more knowledge. Just a little more power.

She sat in the command chair and delved deep into the ship’s mind. She would remove the implant. Soon.

No. We can help you.

She shook her head against the Adversary’s voice. Images of Hell—for that was what she had seen in the Conduit breach—filled her mind. Threatened her with the price of disobedience.

She tried to focus on the ship. “Show me. Show me everything.” It was time she had the truth. Then she’d rip out this cursed thing. But she had to know.

And the Ark understood. With the implant, at long last she was able to sort its stream of consciousness, to make sense of it. To tell it what she really wanted.

In her mind she fell, spiraling backward through centuries and millennia. And it showed her the Conduit. Not the mere maze of paths she now knew, but a vast highway connecting all universes. It stretched through the multiverse like the mind of God. And humans lived in so many of those universes.

A thousand Edens grew and rose and fell before her eyes. Mankind flourished in some universes, building great civilizations. In others, humanity gave in to its own dark nature and destroyed itself. In her universe, though, time had moved on a different scale from some of the others. Eden—the Earth—was only just being formed.

While across the veil, humans in a universe with faster time had evolved beyond their humble origins. They had spread across the universe and found it dying. Suns winked out one by one. God help her, she was witnessing the heat death of an entire universe. And a people, an advanced society, facing its own extinction, as all creation ended around them.

They had become a post-human evolution of humanity, but it was not enough. Before her eyes they altered their own genetic code, implanted cybernetics into themselves. Made themselves Angels.

And they mapped the Conduit.

The Ark showed her the memory of Angels. It had bonded with their minds, as it bonded with hers. It was seeing … Raziel’s memories? Its creator? Had her unlikely ally once built this very ship? And she’d never even suspected.

And Raziel was afraid. They were all afraid. In desperation, they fled their dying universe. And they found mankind in many others. Centuries passed, and she watched the Angels manipulate humans in younger universes, casting themselves as gods. Altering the course of human society and evolution. Why?

“Because,” someone said to Raziel, “we cannot allow them to become like us. We cannot allow them to follow our course and become a threat.”

And they found the perfect universe. A young universe, where humans had not yet arisen. A universe that would last for billions of years more. Rachel’s universe.

“A bastion, a focal point for our new multiversal empire.”

Angels came through the Conduit en masse, planning to make this universe their own. Thousands of ships erupted forward and began terraforming worlds. Including the Earth. Making sure it became the way they remembered it. They pressed ever outward.

Until they found the Lotan. Never, in any universe they had found, had the Angels encountered creatures of dark matter. Raziel’s confusion filtered through the Ark. His fear and doubt and curiosity. His concern, when his superiors demanded the Lotan submit to Angel rule. His rage and grief as war erupted, and Lotan began to tear Angel ships apart.

And so, in their desperate arrogance, their most brilliant scientists began experiments. Using the Conduit, they created a living universe to fight the Lotan. They created a breach in the universe to reach their new weapon … the Great Attractor. And it did fight the Lotan … before turning on its own creators, no more pleased to be mastered than the Lotan themselves.

They called the new universe the Adversary, for it turned them against themselves. Grief and pain threatened to drown her. Through the Ark’s eyes she saw her brothers and sisters fall, taken by the Beast. In the end, the Angels fought a cataclysmic war that destroyed a galaxy. And they erected seven seals to bar the way to any other universe, Hell included. It was their last, most desperate gambit. They cut themselves off from any of their own kind stranded in other universes.

Raziel wept for those he had known, people he would never see again. And for the countless losses they had suffered in the war.

They betrayed us. The Adversary’s voice pounded against the inside of her temples. They tried to dominate us, just as they did to you.

“You saw us as nothing but hosts for the Beast!”

We saw you as like them. We did not understand you were different. As we are different.

“You tried to exterminate us!”

That fate can yet be avoided. Submit.

Rachel grabbed the implant and shrieked. She tugged at its release, but the twisted thing wouldn’t give way. She ground her fingernail into the button, and at last it snapped free. Tendrils of current raced through her neck. She convulsed and fell to floor.

Then everything went dark.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-TWO

July 20th

I have the Ark, but I fear it will not be enough. Tens of billions may be dead. Billions more will fall if I cannot stop the Adversary.

A thousand Asheran ships descended on Rachel’s fleet. The Fornax Dwarf Galaxy had become the battleground for the Local Group. If she fell here, she wouldn’t have enough ships to stop the Adversary when they came for the Milky Way. The Sculptor Dwarf would likely be next, of course—and refugees fled that galaxy by the billions, flooding into the Milky Way. Believing the NER could save them from Armageddon.

But there was nowhere to hide.

She rubbed the spot on her neck where the implant had been. Nanobot regenerators had healed the outward damage, but it still itched. And her dreams were constant reminders of the price of knowledge. Hell no longer spoke in her mind, but she could hardly forget the visions it had given her. The promises of torment, should she resist. As she did now.

From the Ark’s command chair she reached into the holo display and triggered communications, then sent a hail to the Sephirot. “Phoebe. Take your fleet to port and focus on the leviathans. I’ll handle the starboard side.”

“Yup, yup.”

They needed to take out the Asherans before Adversary ships showed up. She’d heard the rumors about the flagship of Hell, the Azazel. People said it was larger and more powerful than even the Ark. So far, she hadn’t been able to find out.

With closed fists she punched into the plasma banks, sending bolts scattering among the Asheran fleet. Hundreds of them. It didn’t matter where they hit. The Asherans were so tightly packed nearly every shot would inflict damage somewhere. A rain of fire and terror to make them think twice.

Explosions filled her display. She continued punching forward, driving bolt after bolt into the incoming ships. Missiles fired toward her hull. She twisted her hand and a net of plasma detonated the majority of the warheads. Some hit, but her shields held. Everything had changed. She was the one with the ship now.

She would destroy fleet after fleet of Asherans.

The Angels were gone. And still she lost system after system. She could not be everywhere at once, and the NER fleet was dwindling more quickly than the Adversary’s host. In the end, there would be no stopping the apocalypse. All that remained was to make the Asherans bleed for it. To make Hell itself bleed for its crimes.

One of the Asheran cruisers wove through her plasma net, drawing too close for her to shoot at. Phoebe had left a contingent of Sentinels to guard the Ark. If the Asherans boarded, they were in for a nasty surprise.

She focused a plasma stream on a leviathan. The beam tore apart the battleship’s shields and punched right through the hull. The ship ruptured in two, bow and stern drifting apart.

An incoming signal chimed on her screen. Was Phoebe in trouble? She swiveled her display, but the Sephirot and the Sentinel ships under her command were doing well enough. That signal was coming from the Asheran cruiser.

Rachel’s hand hovered over the communicator. She had no reason left to care what these bastards had to say. The traitors had murdered David and damned mankind. Still … Shit. She waved open the channel and a hologram appeared.

An Asheran soldier in full battle uniform, helmet on, a cross of light emanating from within. “Rachel Jordan.”

What the …? That accent was …

The faceplate popped open.

David.

Cybernetic implants stuck out from his cheekbones, temple, and forehead, but it was him. Those eyes were the same.

And it was impossible. “Mac …” How could he be alive? She’d seen his shuttle destroyed. Hadn’t she? Had they somehow captured him before that? It was too much to hope for. If he was back … she could … have a reason. For more. “Thank you, God …” she mumbled, her lip trembling.

“Aye, lass. Disable your defenses and prepare to be boarded.”

“Wha-what?” What the void was he talking about?

“Surrender command of the Ark to me, Rachel. You will be spared.”

The cruiser had already docked in her hangar. David was already on board. And he was … wrong. Those implants meant … the same thing they meant to her. And he had so many more, for so much longer. She didn’t even know how long. The Beast was in him.

Rachel covered her mouth with her hand. God, no. They had turned him. Controlled him, as they tried to control her and Caleb. Tormented his mind with the horrors and temptations of Hell. Her David. Her Mac. Taken from her. Taken from himself.

Trembles shook her until she couldn’t separate rage from grief. Tears spilled from her eyes and she screamed. Roared in frustration. The universe was sick. And she was going to have him back. She would move heaven and face down Hell, but she was getting her David back.

With a wave of her hand she sealed the bridge. Another wave opened a comm to the Sephirot. “Phoebe! I need Knight and Leah over here immediately. I’m relaying a transmission.” It would explain everything.

“Yup, sure, okay. We’re in the middle of an apocalyptic battle, but you can totally borrow my boyfriend!”

Rachel cut the channel and sent the signal. She was in no mood to deal with Phoebe right now. She was in no mood for any of it anymore.

She had to see David. God help her. Rachel climbed from the chair, then sank to her knees. She pulled the implant from its case on her suit. Leah had suggested she destroy the horrid thing. Maybe she should have. But this … this let her truly be one with the Ark. If she implanted it here, she wouldn’t even need to stay on the bridge. She’d be able to control the ship from anywhere.

She shut her eyes. “God. Please help me now.”

One more time. One more time, she could stand up to the Beast. One last time, for David. Because he meant more than any knowledge ever would.

Rachel pushed the implant back in. The prongs bit through her skin and convulsions wracked her once again. She dropped to her hands and screamed against the pain.

Get up.

A few deep breaths, then she rose. David needed her. He had been through worse.

She felt the Ark in her mind. Allowed it to become one with her. Dove deep inside, so she could control its weapons on instinct. A defensive stance, while she dealt with the intruders. She could feel them, decks below her, engaging the Sentinels here to protect her.

She ran from the bridge, sealing corridors behind her as she went. No one was taking this ship. On and on she pushed, heart racing. In her mind’s eye she saw David engaging the Sentinels.

David raced forward, leading a squad of Zuzim. He leapt to the side, dodging pulse rounds, then swept a Sentinel’s feet from beneath him. David caught the falling man and slammed an elbow into his chest. A crack echoed through the deck as the Sentinel’s suit fractured and his chest caved in. David flung the dead man into one of the other Sentinels.

Her husband charged forward. Nearly as fast as Knight. His fist shattered a Sentinel’s faceplate. The Sentinels might have held against the Zuzim alone, but with David … with his training, her people were being torn apart. Rachel pushed harder. She had to reach him.

David grabbed a man, hefted him up, and slammed him down over his knee. Rachel cringed at the sound of the man’s spine snapping.

The Ark sensed Raziel’s ship approaching, preparing to dock. But the Sentinels couldn’t afford to wait for Knight. Rachel raced around the corner to see David snap a man’s arm and toss him aside like an old shirt.

“Mac!” she rushed toward him. “Mac, stop!”

A Sentinel’s pulse shot took down a Zuzim near David. He leapt into the air, covering almost five meters, then landed with a descending punch that crushed the attacking Sentinel.

Rachel raised her own pistol in the air. He had to know her. He had to know she wouldn’t hurt him.

David spun on her and advanced at a steady stride. His faceplate was open, his blue eyes narrowed. “Surrender this ship.”

“No!”

He continued forward, menace in his steps.

Shit. He wasn’t going to listen. Rachel backed away, slowly pointing her pulse pistol at his chest. “Mac … Don’t make me.”

His pace increased, brows drawn, teeth gritted. He knew her—she could see the recognition in his eyes—but he wasn’t in control.

Out of nowhere a shadow flew through the air, kicked off the wall, and slammed into David. Knight grabbed him, rolled, and flung, sending David soaring several meters. Her husband collided with a wall, hit the ground, and immediately jumped back to his feet.

“Run!” Knight shouted at her.

“No!” She wasn’t leaving David. Never again. Never.

David rushed Knight. Knight fell into a crouch and tried to evade the attack. She felt his surprise as David moved much faster than ever before and caught Knight’s arm. Knight spun, twisted, and tried to break free. But David’s cybernetics made him a match for Knight at long last. They traded blows faster than she could see. Blocking, swinging fists and feet.

David jabbed at Knight, who ducked. The punch slammed into the wall and dented it. Steam rushed out of the cracks, and the Ark recoiled in her mind from the sudden injury. More Asheran cruisers were trying to draw in, reinforce the Zuzim. That was not happening. Rachel split her mind, focusing the plasma bolts on the advancing ships, while continuing to draw a bead on David.

And if she got a clear shot? There was still no way she could harm him. Instead, she shot down a Zuzim advancing on a Sentinel. Her crew had brought down several others, but it didn’t look good.

David caught Knight’s arm and flung him into the wall. Knight spun in midair, kicked off it, and flipped, pulling his sword. It expanded as he landed, becoming a full katana.

“Knight, no!” God, he’d kill David.

“I don’t have a choice.”

David leapt forward again, swinging another downward blow. Knight rolled to the side and David’s punch ripped a hole in the deck. Knight swung his sword as he came up, opening a light gash in David’s back. He could have severed the spine … Knight was trying to hold back, thank God.

“Just subdue him!” Rachel shouted.

“I’m trying—”

David twisted, spinning as though the cut didn’t even faze him. His elbow slammed into Knight’s ribs and the crack echoed through the hall. Knight crumpled backward, clutching his side. For a heartbeat, Rachel felt him trying to block the pain, to repeat his mantra. Then David grabbed him and flung him to the ground. Knight jerked from the impact. David kicked his prone form, sending him flying through the air. Knight collided with an atmosphere tank. It crunched under the impact, folding nearly in two.

Knight lay still on the floor.

David advanced on her.

Holy shit.

Rachel leveled her pulse pistol at him. “Please don’t make me do this.”

He ran toward her.

He was going to kill her.

But still she couldn’t shoot him. Not him. Not David. It was her fault all this had happened. If he killed her, it was justice. She let the weapon fall from her grasp and clatter to the deck.

“Mac …”

He raised a fist as he approached and grabbed her by the shoulder. He roared, his fist trembling. But the blow didn’t land. David groaned, spittle seeping from his mouth. “Rachel …”

Her heart raced. He was still in there. She gingerly reached up to brush his cheek. The metal implant there was cold, hard. So alien.

But she could reach him. Rachel sent wave after wave of empathic energy at David. She flooded him with every erotic memory of them she had, with every romantic moment they’d shared. In an instant, they relived a lifetime together.

This is you, she thought, certain her silent words carried into David’s mind. This is us. Remember us, Mac. Remember yourself.

David’s fist fell. He stared into her eyes, the recognition softening with love before growing cold with horror. He slumped forward with a groan. Rachel stepped in and wrapped her arms around her husband, catching him. “Shhh. You’re safe now, Mac.”

He shuddered in her grasp, then sank to his knees.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-THREE

In my darkest hour, I have found a dream I did not dare hope for. And with it comes a last prayer for our future. I might have David back. The implant lies untouched in my suit. It could easily unlock the answers to saving my husband … But how many more times can I afford to activate it? Even as I delve the Ark’s memories, I feel the Beast stalking me. And I have to question … how strong am I?

The Sephirot’s med bay was better equipped than the Ark’s, so Rachel had brought David there. He lay on a table, bound by multiple mag restraints, though he seemed lucid at the moment. Rachel sat by his beside, stroking his head. Never had she allowed herself to dare dream he lived … But this horror … What had they done to him?

David had been a symbol of the NER. By taking him to their side, maybe Asherah had hoped to break the spirit of the Republic. They must have used some kind of holograms to fake his death, just as the Serpent had tried to evade capture in the Expanse. Apollyon was a master of such things—he must have given Asherah the tech.

And so she’d never even looked for him. She’d left him to rot, tortured and altered in a sick cybernetic laboratory. She sighed and laid her head on his chest.

In a nearby bed, Knight sat up, clutching his side with a grimace. Leah said his natural cellular regeneration had already begun, but she injected him with nanobots anyway. According to her, Knight would be fine in hours. Which didn’t stop Phoebe from fawning over him. Not that Rachel would be doing any different in her place.

“That mean old Smogger hurt you, big guy?” Phoebe said.

Okay—maybe Rachel would handle it a little differently.

“Yeah, well. Kind of hard when I had to hold back.”

“Yup, I’m sure, baby. Don’t worry. I’ll protect you from now on. Now you’re on my ship.”

David coughed. “I thought this was my ship, lass?” The mag restraints prevented him from turning his head, but Rachel supposed he’d heard the whole conversation.

“Nope. You were dead, Captain. Plus, you hit my boyfriend.”

“Sorry … I …” David grunted. The Beast was still trying to take him. A torrent of conflicting emotions roiled within him, leaving Rachel nauseated.

Leah walked back over, a different scanner in her hand. “Phoebe, you can take him back to your quarters now.”

“Uh, I think we’d better keep him restrained for now.”

The Amphie quirked an eyebrow. “Not David. Knight.”

Phoebe shrugged. “I could restrain him, too.”

Knight slipped off the table and stalked to the door, shaking his head.

“Ohhh,” Phoebe said. “You mean you want some private time. Right. M’kay. I’ll just, you know, be around. Commanding my ship, and stuff.” She jerked her thumb at the door, then followed Knight out.

David snorted. “Glad some things haven’t changed around here.”

Leah gently pushed Rachel aside, then ran the scanner over David. After a minute or so, the Amphie sighed. “Rachel … can I talk to you alone for a moment?”

“Hey. Lass. Whatever you have to say, I’ve got a right to know, too.”

Leah looked to Rachel, who nodded. David was right. Whatever they’d done to him, he would have to face it.

“All right … the cybernetic implants are significant. And I’m not an expert on the subject, obviously. They appear to have grafted in synthetic muscles, plated his bones with mahtium, and put numerous chips in his brain. His knuckles also have mahtium reinforcements.” That would explain him punching through her deck. “I’m not even certain what those things on his cheeks and temples are meant to do, but gathering sensory input would be my guess.”

“One is an internal Mazzaroth relay,” David said.

A what? “You can access the Mazzaroth inside your head?”

“Aye.”

Holy shit. That was too weird.

“And I know one feeds holo imaging to my cerebral cortex. I can see a layout of most structures in my mind.”

Helpful, but again, she thought it would be a bit much for her. “Look, I don’t care what they do. Get them out of him. Everything.”

“I … I’m not sure I can. Not without causing serious harm to David. I’m not a cyberneticist, Rachel, but these things are wired directly into his nervous system. Did you understand when I said he’s had mechanical muscles grafted onto his existing muscles? It’s not like I can just cut them out.”

David grunted.

Rachel ran a hand through her hair. So he was stuck like this? Fighting against the Beast every minute? She slipped her hand into David’s, and he squeezed it. His face gave no hint, but she could taste the fear he tried to bury. And pain, constant torment from the Adversary. Trying to lure him back. The same Raziel and the other Angels had faced … And Raziel had withstood it. Maybe David could too.

Or … “We do have a cyberneticist on board, though.”

Leah nodded, and for a brief instant, Rachel shared her sudden surge of hope. Caleb might have the answers they needed. Maybe Rachel wouldn’t even have to delve the Ark again …

“All right,” Leah said. “I’ll have Caleb brought up here, then.”

Rachel clutched her husband’s hand. “It’ll be all right.”

“I was going to say the same to you, lass.”

A few minutes later a Sentinel escorted Caleb Gavet to the med bay. He and Leah spoke softly, going over the data from her scans. They disappeared into her office, leaving Rachel alone with David.

“If they can’t take these things out …” Rachel said.

“I won’t let it take me again. You brought me back, Rach. I’m not … going anywhere. If that bampot Caleb can fight this, so can I.”

That was all she needed to hear. Rachel released the mag restraints.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FOUR

July 21st

After all, with David back, maybe we have a chance. He has pulled through incredible odds before. And all of us are together once again. Myself, David, Knight, Phoebe. Together … Together I hope for salvation.

Its voice strengthened or weakened over time. Sometimes it was a whisper on the edge of his mind, lulling him into false respite. Sometimes it sounded like a clarion, ringing through his ears and demanding submission. But the Adversary never left David. Maybe it never would.

With Caleb’s help, Leah had removed several implants, including the one granting Mazzaroth access. Caleb said anything that plugged directly into his brain would be the greatest risk. The man should know, David supposed.

Legs folded beneath him, he sat in his quarters, trying to still the tremble in his hands. Hands that now had the power to punch through walls, but not the strength to control it. More surgeries would follow, Leah promised him. But he might never be free.

David ground his teeth. Never, unless they stopped the Adversary. He curled his hands into fists.

He would. He would storm the gates of Hell itself if he had to.

That was what a Sentinel did. They were the guardians against the darkness. They had been formed to face threats like the Adversary, to stop what happened on Eden from ever happening again. And Apollyon had played them well, weakening them through civil war and struggle with first the Conglomerate, then Asherah.

But the Sentinels would not be broken. They were not just people—they were an idea. A calling to watch over humanity. They stood between mankind and the coming night of oblivion. And only Sentinels could fight Armageddon and hope to win.

It knew his thoughts.

A vision of that hellish universe raced through his mind. Vortices of seeming infinite size tore through red space. Lightning coruscated around the columns as they drifted around nebulous galaxies. Each vortex watched him, like eyes of an angry universe.

“You won’t win.”

We always win. While Angels sealed this universe and cowered in fear, tens of thousands of other universes fell before us. All filled with ships. All coming for you. There is no other way.

“There’s always another way.”

Nothing can stop us, mortal.

“God will stop you.”

We are God.

David laughed. “Aye, thanks. I needed a good jibe to lift my spirits.” He rose from the floor, then had to shut his eyes from the sudden psychic onslaught. Obviously, he’d gotten to them. They didn’t like being mocked.

He tapped his comm. “McGregor to Dana. Call everyone to the war room. I’ve got an announcement to make.”

It was time to change strategies. If humanity wanted to survive, they had to band together. The Angels were gone. Many were frozen in the Ark once again, recovering from Knight’s QEMP. The rest had fled the Local Group. Maybe they would flee this universe. If so, he pitied them. They would be running forever, always in fear of their terrible creation.

Ten minutes later, his inner circle sat gathered around the table. David scratched his head, then stood, placing his hands on the table.

“All right, look at this. Things have all gone to shite. Mizraim is gone, the Sentinels are fractured, and the Conglomerate is a mess. All we’ve got left is the NER and the new Synod, and the Adversary knows it. They are systematically wiping out our support.”

Knight folded his arms and leaned back, glowering at David. Not likely to forgive the pain he’d caused any time soon, but there was nothing David could do for that. And Knight had brought much of this on them, releasing the Adversary. The Gehennan was a fool, but he remained one of their greatest weapons.

“Here’s the thing,” David said. “We, us Sentinels, were created for this day. Somewhere along the road, we lost that. We got so caught up in politics, we forgot what these triangles on our uniforms mean. Honor, duty, justice.” He tapped his suit. “Aye? Well, our numbers are too few now. But where did we come from in the first place? From people who had survived the Exodus. People who bound together to say, ‘never again’. From times like these. So I’m going to put out a call to all of humanity. I’m going to form new Sentinels, this time under the command of the Synod.”

“Uh,” Phoebe said. “It kind of takes years of training to get to where we are, David. I mean, no one really gets to where I am, but, you know, close, even.”

“Does it? Rachel doesn’t have years of training. She has what she’s learned on the job. But she put on the uniform, and she’s fought for mankind. And she’s made a difference, hasn’t she?”

His wife smiled and stared at the table. He’d swear she was blushing.

“How will we know we can trust the people who join?” Leah asked.

It was a question he’d been struggling with all day. He’d like to believe no one would willingly serve Hell. He’d like to say anyone without cybernetic implants could be trusted. But he couldn’t believe that for certain. Men would be tempted, thinking they could bargain or barter for their lives. For those they cared about.

“We have telepaths in uniform already. I guess we’ll have to make delving part of basic training.”

Leah glowered and Phoebe snorted. No one would like it, but he saw no other choice. They needed all the help they could get.

“What about the Gibborim?” Knight said. “Some of them are cybered, but it might be reversible. And they already have training not so very different from Sentinels.”

“Except for major problems with authority,” Phoebe said.

“Which is different from you how?” Knight asked.

“It’s a thought,” David said. “We’ll look into it. And … And there are many people out there who know how to fight. I put many of them away. Pirates, smugglers, Redeemers. Humanity has to be united in this. I’m going to offer a general pardon to anyone who wants to sign up.”

“Whoa,” Phoebe said. “You’re going to empty the prison planets? You think we can trust them in Sentinel uniforms?”

In normal times, never. But they had reached the End of Days. And facing extinction, he suspected even former enemies might have cause to band together. “We’ve already released Caleb Gavet. Why not your brother?”

“Ezra …” Phoebe shook her head. “I want to, but … He has implants. A cybernetic eye.”

“Fine. Give him the chance to have it removed. We don’t have much time. We need everyone we can get armed and with some basic training. Because very soon, the Adversary will come for the Milky Way. And if we lose New Eden, we lose everything.”

“How about you?” Knight asked. “How long can you control it, with those implants?”

David shut his eyes. As long as he had to.

He would never be a pawn again.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-FIVE

July 23rd

David’s call has rung through the Mazzaroth. People see him as their resurrected hero, back from the void. And they have flocked to his banner by the billions.

Caleb didn’t deserve a pardon. After all he’d done in service to Apollyon, he knew better. There was no redemption. The Adversary knew it too. It never let him forget.

Tell us where you are.

Caleb shook his head and kept walking down the corridor. Unescorted. How odd. How truly foolish of them. Of course, he would never willingly betray Rachel or McGregor, not now. But he wasn’t certain how much longer he could control himself.

Visions of Hell swarmed behind his eyes until he stumbled against the wall. They burned him, engulfed him in a freezing, fiery nebula of destruction that tore his molecules apart then forced them back together. A warning of things to come.

Give us your location.

Maybe Rachel couldn’t stop the advance of Hell. But now that she had the Ark, she had gotten their attention. He supposed it counted for something. And so Hell tried to use him to gather intel on dwindling forces of the NER. Maybe it knew McGregor was recruiting Sentinels. Maybe it wanted to learn where he was training them.

Caleb should leave the ship. Remove any chance of betraying Rachel.

Except, if the Adversary could use him to gather intel … well, it had to work both ways.

He paused outside the isolation wing of the brig. Sentinels stared him down.

“I need to see her.”

The man didn’t even look him in the eye. “The prisoner is off limits.”

“I have permission from Lieutenant Jordan. Call her.”

The Sentinel grimaced, then tapped his comm, making the call. A second later he stood aside.

Despite himself, Caleb’s heart raced. The bitch had betrayed him in the worst possible way. He should feel nothing for her. He should have her spaced.

And yet …

He entered the isolation wing. Behind smart glass, Rebekah was bound, kneeling on the floor. Mag restraints held her arms out to either side. Her fiery orange hair hung over her lowered head. But she looked up at him as he entered, a coy smile on her traitorous face.

“Caleb.”

A tap opened the smart glass and he stepped inside.

Rebekah—or Naamah, he supposed—licked her lips. Visions seeped into his mind. She lay naked on the floor of his office, legs spread, waiting for him. Her pert breasts begging him too …

God!

He slapped her, the sound ringing through the cell.

“Stay out of my head!”

Naamah groaned, then licked a trail of blood from her lip. “I’ve never been anywhere you didn’t invite me, Caleb.”

The worst of it was, it was true. And the damn telepath would know he knew that.

He was sick. This monster had indirectly murdered his wife and children, and still he felt himself harden. Void, she might well have set the bomb herself for all he knew. Still, he had to fight the urge to rip her clothes off and take her in this very cell. And maybe she was telepathically driving him to it—but that weakness had to be inside him in the first place. A weakness of character, a weakness of soul, poor withered thing that it was.

A shuddering breath escaped him, and Naamah smiled wider.

“Come on. No one will know. You know how I like it.”

He ran his index finger along her smooth jaw line. “You told me you were nineteen.”

“My file said that.”

Fair enough. She’d never actually claimed it out loud. “How old are you really?”

“Timeless, my love.”

“I am not your love!” He never was. He was a tool she’d used to unmake mankind. He was a pawn she’d played.

Naamah recoiled harder than when he’d actually struck her. “Of course you are.”

His mouth tasted like sawdust, and he felt his fingers curling into a fist. He wanted to hit her, blacken her eyes. He wanted to fuck her until she shuddered in his arms and whispered her love a thousand times.

“You disgust me.”

“Caleb, I …” The smile had slipped from her face. “You don’t mean that. Yo-you love me, too.”

Heaven help him, could she be serious? Could a creature like her …? No. It was impossible. She was playing him again.

“Please don’t think that.”

He raised his fist toward her face. “Do not read my mind.”

“I-I can’t help it … It’s not easy to shut it out … I’m sorry. Caleb, please.”

It didn’t matter. He couldn’t have brought himself to beat her anyway. Instead, he slumped to his knees in front of her. “Tell us everything.”

“What?”

“You have a connection to the Adversary.”

“Caleb, I …”

He grabbed her chin. “Show me your love, Angel. You know what I have sacrificed. What will you give?”

“I’ll be punished.”

He leaned close to her face so he could whisper in her ear. “You deserve it.”

A tear leaked from her eye and his face was so close to hers, the hot dampness dripped onto his own cheek. Maybe she was the finest actor in the universe. Or maybe, despite a billion years of life, she was still human underneath all that metal in her body.

“Please,” she said, voice breaking. “Don’t hate me.”

“Tell us. Tell us where the Adversary is massing, where their ships are. How many they have. Tell us everything, Naamah.”

She drew a deep breath, then blew it out. “All right, Caleb.” She closed her eyes. “Kiss me.”

He rose and kissed her forehead. That was all she would ever get from him. He had to be strong enough to give her nothing else.

He stepped outside the cell and tapped his comm. “Gavet to Jordan. You should come down here.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-SIX

July 24th

From what I learned from Namaah, we are doomed. She might be lying, of course, but I doubt it.

Knight leaned against the wall in the war room, arms folded over his chest, listening to Rachel explain the details of the Adversary force. According to Caleb’s pet Angel, the Adversary thus far had only brought an advance strike fleet in—some five thousand ships. But if pressed, they could muster tens of thousands more.

As usual, Rachel paced while she lectured. “The Great Attractor is the original gateway the Angels created to give Hell access to our universe. The Adversary has to bring its ship out from there, and right now, those ships are spread through thousands of other universes, doing the same thing they’ve been doing here. So they’re relying on the Asherans as their mortal armies.”

Phoebe sat at the table, but she kept glancing back at Knight. He winked at her. She was scared, but she wouldn’t want to show it. No matter what, he’d never let anything happen to her.

David, Leah, and Caleb all sat around the table as well. Caleb stared at a tablet, Knight suspected to avoid looking any of the others in the eye. The intel the man provided—assuming it was true—made it worth sparing the bastard’s life. Barely.

“Now we know they’ve already moved in on the Sculptor Dwarf. Based on the size of their forces, we might—might—be able to halt their advance. However, Rebekah Norris promises us it would only mean more ships coming out of the Attractor. It’s a reality we’ll have to deal with. As long as the door to Hell remains open, we cannot win this.”

“According to her,” Knight said. “And she’s the servant of our enemy.”

“I’ve been played so many times by her,” Caleb said, “I don’t know what to think. But I guess we have to assume she’s telling the truth and they have many, many reinforcements.”

“Fine,” Leah said. “But you can’t destroy a black hole. So how do you propose to stop them?”

Rachel raised a finger, then pulled up a display on the screen. “Five billion years ago, Angels created seven seals to lock this universe away from any other. Our best chance may be to do the same.”

“We don’t have that kind of tech,” Phoebe said. “I mean, maybe if I had twenty years to work on it.”

Knight pushed off the wall to stand beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’ve spoken to the Lotan. They held one of the Angel stations since the Vanishing. They studied it for centuries. They think they can recreate the seals.”

“Uh, then why haven’t they? I mean, saving the universe sounds like a good thing, you know?”

Knight looked to Rachel, who cleared her throat. “The Lotan told him they’d have to build the seals near the Attractor itself. They don’t have the ability to create them anywhere, the way Angels did. It would take time, and the moment the enemy realized what we were doing—”

“They’ll come en masse,” David said. “Against their combined armada, we’ve no chance. Even if they don’t bring in reinforcements from Hell.”

“I have the Ark,” Rachel said. “With the Sephirot—”

“It won’t work,” Caleb said. “The Azazel, their flagship, I’ve seen it. Not even the Ark can stop it. It’s bigger and stronger than any other ship in this universe. With the Azazel, they can destroy entire galaxies by causing mass expansion of galactic cores. You can’t fight something like that.”

Knight shook his head. “Anything can be fought. Anything that lives can die.”

“Rebuilding the seals is the only plan we’ve got left,” Rachel said.

Caleb sighed. “A desperate gambit.”

“Aye,” David said. “It is. But they’ll never expect it.”

“Always do the unexpected,” Knight said.

“Because that worked out so well last time,” Caleb mumbled.

Maybe Caleb was right … But then, releasing the Adversary had let them overthrow the Angels. Because the Angels never saw it coming. And the Adversary wouldn’t see this coming, either.

David held up a hand. “Say your prayers, lads and lasses. Tomorrow we’re off to Hell.” The captain rose, his chair screeching along the deck, then left. Knight couldn’t imagine what the man faced. The constant inner battle David—and Caleb—now fought. A war to control their own bodies.

He supposed they all had their personal struggles. Rachel had fought her private war in a universe that never believed her. And Knight himself … well, he was now the most hated man in history. Even the other Sentinels on this ship looked at him with fear and disgust.

Rachel nodded and followed her husband out, and the others began to depart as well. Knight kept his hand on Phoebe’s shoulder and pushed her back down.

“Uh, ninja boy? If you’re planning a last romp before the big day, our quarters are a better idea. I mean, I guess there’s something erotic about doing it here in the war room. David’s likely to be pissed as a polar bear getting a buzz cut, though.”

Knight chuckled at the mental image. Phoebe was something else. He’d never met anyone like her in his life. And he never would again. “How’s the baby?”

“Pretty much the most awesome baby ever. I mean, what do you expect? Given his parents?”

He’d be a lucky kid, having her as a mother. “Phoebe … You should get off the ship.”

“Fuck no. It’s cold as the void outside.”

“I mean—”

“I know what you mean. Not happening.”

He squeezed her shoulder. “You were the one lecturing me about endangering the baby when we went looking for the Lotan.”

“Yup. But if this fails, baby’s going to be in danger anyway. You know, what with the End of Days and all.”

“Phoebe, I—”

“Nope.”

“Please—”

“Nuh-uh.” She shook her head. “Not happening, big guy.”

He sighed. He’d known she would never agree, but he had to try. “Then there’s something else I need you to do.”

“Does it involve being naked?”

“No. Well, I guess you could do it naked. Rachel found Raziel’s schematics for the QEMP. Can you begin mass production? I want to make sure every Sentinel strike force is armed with one. If they can take down Angels, they can take down Asherans or fallen Angels, too.”

Phoebe nodded, suddenly serious. Just one more thing to love about her. She could be ridiculous—until it really mattered. Then there was no one he’d rather have on his side.

“We’re going to need as many as you can make.”

“Let’s get some dinner first. Pregnant lady is hungry here.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-SEVEN

July 26th

Caleb was right—this is my last, most desperate gambit. On it I gamble the very existence of humankind. God forgive my arrogance.

Where are you?

Caleb pulled the pillow over his head. It wouldn’t help, of course. Especially not out here in the Conduit. There was no escape. There was no release. His waking moments were filled with the voice of the Adversary.

Open your mind to us. Show us their plans.

His dreams were haunted by the constant torments Hell had planned for him. No respite.

He could feel the walls of his mind begin to crumble under the pressure. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block visions that had nothing to do with sight. A million Angel ships, all covered with eyes, descending on universe after universe. Galaxies were swallowed by black holes the size of the Great Attractor. All the multiverse fell.

There is no escape.

How many are you?

Caleb drove thoughts of the NER armada from his mind. He forced himself to think of anything else. But the horrors of the Great Attractor—of a thousand of them—would not flee. Holes in creation that could swallow reality. Suck it into the bowels of torment.

It spiraled endlessly before him, on a scale beyond human comprehension.

No matter how tightly he clenched his eyes, there was no way not to see it. Because the vision wasn’t from his eyes.

His eyes.

His first implants. Like a blind man stumbling in the dark, he had allowed Apollyon to make him khapiru. To implant cybernetic eyes in his head for the chance to get a leg up on his enemies. For the chance to look at girls naked. For nothing. Because he’d never considered the cost. Not really.

Just like the chip in his head.

And the closer they flew to the Great Attractor, the worse it would get. From the moment he’d first spied that abomination, he’d known no peace. And his heart knew the truth now. It would consume him. The threat was a promise. The end of his life. The fate he deserved for his sins.

You are coming to us.

Oh, void! It was breaking through his mental barriers.

Lotan …

Caleb shot bolt upright. They knew. Hell would bring the Azazel to destroy the Lotan.

The visions of it ran again and again through his mind. Through the blasted eyes he never should have taken. Not bothering with a shirt, he ran from his quarters.

Where was she? He knew her quarters were on the deck below. He stumbled into the lift, tapped it, then slumped against the wall. Call her? No. He’d left his comm in his room.

Fire and ice shot through his veins. A torment from Hell. It knew what he planned.

“Fuck you!” he screamed as he stumbled from the lift.

Sentinels in the hall stared at him. Didn’t matter. He ran to Leah’s room and buzzed the door.

When she finally opened it, clad in only a night shirt, he fell forward and she caught him.

“Please! Please help me. Take them out. Take it all out.”

She clutched his shoulders and forced him upright. Her hair was disheveled, and she blinked in the light of the hall. “Caleb? What happened?”

“Take out my eyes, the chip, everything.”

“That’s—you’d be blind.”

He nodded, swallowing hard. To see nothing would be better than to see everything. He’d seen too much in his life already. “Do it, please. I beg you, Leah. I’m sorry for anything I ever said to you. Please help me.”

All this time, he’d been helping her study implants. She had to know enough now to safely remove the chip from his brain. And the eyes—those should be nothing to her.

She bit her lip, then nodded. “All right, Caleb. If that’s what you want. Let me just get dressed. I’ll meet you in the med bay.”

No. No, he couldn’t make it on his own. “Don’t leave me.”

“Fine. Just wait outside while I put on my uniform.”

And miss his last chance to see a beautiful naked woman. Shame. But she probably wouldn’t see it that way. He stepped outside and braced himself against the wall.

You cannot do this.

Oh, he would.

Minutes later, he lay on an operating table. Leah stood over him, hair tied in bun, mask over her mouth. “You’re certain?”

“Yes.”

She pressed something to his neck, and everything went dark.

Then warm hands shook him awake. He just wanted more sleep. Peaceful sleep, deep and dreamless.

“Caleb, come on,” Leah said. “I’ll get you back to your quarters.”

He tried to open his eyes. There was nothing. No feeling. Just darkness.

No voices. No visions.

Leah’s hand on his back pulled him to a sitting position.

“It-it’s done?” He didn’t need an answer. He knew it was. Hell was gone.

He was free.

He threw his arms around her, falling from the table from his movement. His weight carried them both crashing into the ground.

“Ow.”

Caleb laughed.

He was free.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-EIGHT

July 27th

I see no alternative than to make this final stand. Armageddon will be won or lost in the coming days.

Ten thousand ships left the Local Group under David’s command. The largest armada humanity had ever brought together for a single purpose. The most important battle in human history. Days flying the Conduit had worn everyone down, and so they paused outside a Gate, recovering their strength for a few hours.

It left him with one last chance. Rachel had to stay on the Ark. She had to command it. And David was needed on the Sephirot, leading the fleet. The harsh reality was they couldn’t face this final battle on the same ship. Phoebe was capable, but David had to lead this thing himself.

So, for this brief respite, he docked a shuttle in the Ark’s hangar. One last moment alone together.

When the hatch popped, Rachel already stood in the hangar, watching him with a coy smile. She said nothing, just extended a hand toward him. He took it and followed her as she led him back to her quarters.

Leah had removed as many of his implants as she could. Still, some remained, and with every passing lightyear, the voice of the enemy grew stronger in his mind. But he knew that voice now, and he would never give in again.

The door opened to Rachel’s room. She’d brought in a table and lit it with candles. A spread of fresh fruits and spiced chicken filled bowls across the table. Oranges, apples, strawberries. The sweet smells mixed with the spicy aroma of chili pepper on the chicken.

“Did you make this yourself?”

She snickered. “I can cook, Mac.”

“I thought saving the universe was a full-time job.”

“I’m versatile.” She sat at the table, swiped a strawberry, then fed it to him.

Sweet juice tickled his tongue and he shut his eyes, hoping to drink in only that sensation. To block the screams and pain and temptations that endlessly banged through his mind.

“Is it … bad?”

“What? No, lass. Very fresh.”

“Not that—the implants. I heard about Caleb.”

David couldn’t blame Gavet. If it was an option, he’d do the same himself, accept the handicap and be glad of it. But even if Leah could remove the muscle grafts and metal on his bones, it would leave him an emaciated mess unable to rise from bed. And if this was the End of Days, he planned to face it on his feet. Armed and going down swinging—armed with the very enhanced strength they’d given him.

“Aye, lass. It’s not the most fun I ever had, but I can handle it if I must. Helps when I’ve got such attractive distractions.”

“Distractions? You mean the strawberries.”

“Aye, could be.”

She laughed. “Well, if you want distractions …” She ran a thumb down her jacket, unbinding the nanobots to open it. Eyes locked on his and filled with mischief, she lifted the bottom edge of her undershirt, pulling it up to just below her breasts. “I bet this is distracting.”

“Wife, you’ve no idea.” He’d never get tired of looking at her. Rachel was beautiful—not just her body, but her amber eyes. The way they sparkled when she was like this. The way they lit when she was fighting for what she believed in. She was a creature of passion like no other in this universe.

She laughed and fed him another strawberry.

“Lass,” he said, after swallowing it, “you want any chance of getting to the chicken, best put the dessert out of sight.”

“Okaaay. Just thought you wanted something to keep your mind off Hell.” She giggled—Rachel actually giggled, God help him—and pulled her shirt down.

“Believe me. Hell’s completely out of my mind at the moment.”

Still smiling, she served chicken onto two plates and handed one to him. David let the scents waft over him for a moment before taking a bite. Just enough burn, and awash in exotic flavor. Phoenix spice blend, if he wasn’t mistaken.

“Glad you like it.”

Sometimes, being with an empath had its advantages. She always knew when he really enjoyed something.

“When this is all over,” she said, “what are we going to do?”

“If we live—”

“Don’t talk like that. We’ll make it.”

“I guess I’ll need to help manage the new Sentinels. Lots of new recruits need training if we’re to put the galaxies back in order.”

“So … You’d be staying near to Eden? I mean, when you make the new academy?”

David shrugged. “Not sure. Why, what’s on your mind?”

“Oh, just thought I might start a new university. The Republic could use some schools founded on modern thinking. Born of the new reality.”

“Angels above us, you’re already planning the next way you can save mankind from itself, aren’t you, lass?”

Rachel took her time chewing a bite of chicken before answering. “Is that a problem?”

“No. One of the reasons I love you so much. One of a trillion.”

His wife smiled, hiding the hint of a blush. But it was the truth.

And she was right. They were going to get through this.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVENTY-NINE

July 28th

An energy fills the Ark. Anticipation. It’s not just the crew—though they are nearly overcome by it. The ship itself has fed on my anxiety and awakened to it. More alert than ever. It is one with me. And we are angry.

Darkness was his world now. After so long with others in his mind, the quiet unnerved Caleb. To see nothing, to hear nothing, was peace. But lonely. So he spent most of his days in the med bay. If he was honest with himself, he knew he played for sympathy, just for the chance for some company. Because Leah Suzuki did take pity on him. She was just that kind of person who couldn’t stand to see others suffer. Probably why she became a doctor.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Hmmm?” Her voice came from somewhere to the left. Probably at her desk.

She’d helped Caleb sit in one of the chairs. Most of the time, he didn’t go anywhere without Leah or one of her nurses. The computer’s voice could lead him to his quarters or the mess hall, of course. Sometimes, in his room, he had the computer talk to him. It really didn’t matter what it said. Just the sound of a human voice, artificial though it was.

He had his personal Mazzaroth—her voice that of a sultry woman—read him news reports. He’d never liked reading to himself. Now he never would. Apparently the advance on the Sculptor Dwarf had diminished significantly. Since the Adversary found out where they were going. Since Caleb had let slip the secret plan. He prayed to God the Adversary ships were too far behind David’s fleet to stop them.

“I was reviewing the data you gave me,” Leah said. “I’m still hoping to find a way to reverse what the Asherans did to David. The procedure does seem related to the experiments your company performed on the Gibborim. I spoke to a doctor on New Eden who actually managed to un-cyber one of the Gibborim Sentinel recruits.”

“Which one? Do you know his call sign?”

“Her. Xi, I think. And her name is Abigail. What was with the stupid call signs, anyway?”

“It was to dehumanize them, I think.”

“That’s barbaric.”

“Not my idea.” The Shadow Council had used the call signs for Gibborim since they were created, long ago.

Leah was silent for a moment. She said something over a comm he didn’t quite catch. Then she sighed and he heard her move closer. She put a hand under his arm and guided him to his feet. “Rebekah is asking for you. Repeatedly, they say.”

“I don’t have anything to say to her.” Naamah had betrayed him and taken everything from him. She claimed to love him, yet she had done nothing to save all that mattered in the universe to him. Ayelet. James. Miriam.

They were gone.

She’d done nothing to warn him of Apollyon. She’d done nothing to stop Caleb from letting the other Angel put cybernetics in his head. Through lies and manipulation and lust, Naamah had helped Caleb down the road to Hell. And just because she’d given them information now didn’t absolve her of that. No. The truth was—some sins could never be absolved. Some mistakes could never be corrected.

You just had to live with them.

“She might have more information, Caleb.”

Maybe. “I doubt it.”

“Caleb … there are few things worse in life than unrequited love. Whatever she’s done, I promise you she suffers now.”

Damn. Why did Leah have to be so understanding of everyone? Even him. “Fine. Okay, take me to her.”

Leah did, guiding him down the hall. Her touch was gentle—the only comfort he had left in life. Still, if he lived long enough to see Rachel and McGregor win, he’d be glad of it. If he saw Apollyon fall, he would dance with joy.

And then they stopped, pausing outside what he assumed was her cell.

“Caleb?” Naamah’s voice. “Dear God, what have you done to yourself?”

He stared blindly at her. There was nothing to see. So little was left of himself, and he needed nothing more from her.

“Please, Caleb. I’m … sorry. I’m so sorry. Please, I love you. I know you can love me too. You always loved me.”

Caleb clutched Leah’s hand on his arm, saying nothing.

“I …” Naamah said. “I’m not one of the oldest ones, you know. I really was only around twenty when the war … when it turned. It turned on us. I didn’t know what it was, when it started speaking in my head. I didn’t understand, Caleb. I didn’t know how to fight against it—I didn’t know I needed to.”

“Fine. That doesn’t explain why it took you five billion years to wake up.”

“I was just a kid when it took me!”

Maybe she was. But Caleb would never look on Ayelet’s smile again. He would never hold Miriam in his arms. He would never see James go to university.

He pulled away from Leah to step toward the cell. “If you want forgiveness, Angel … I suggest you ask God. I’m just a man, and I have nothing left to offer you.” He pressed his palm against the smart glass, feeling its chill.

In the darkness, he heard her soft sobs.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY

August 5th

The Ark and I are the wrath of God, descending upon the wicked. Whatever happens, the fallen will hear our voice. And they will know despair.

The Great Attractor stretched across the infinite horizon. Though David had seen it in his mind, seeing it in person was all the more horrible. A black hole unfathomably larger than the one that had swallowed the Balthazar. A monstrous hole in the universe—and now he knew the truth his heart had always felt. This was a gateway to Hell.

The Sephirot drew closer to the mass of Lotan—visible only because of the modifications Phoebe had made to the scanners. The Adversary fleet, on the other hand, was all too apparent. They descended on the Lotan in an immeasurable horde. The Lotan jellyfish tore the Asheran ships to pieces with their tentacles, but they fared much poorer against the fallen Angels.

So close to the singularity, time dilated. David’s allies and enemies seemed to move in slow motion, but began to speed up as the Sephirot closed into firing range. Of course, the reality was, he was actually entering the field of time dilation.

“How many are they?”

“Hard to get exact readings,” Phoebe said. “Maybe two thousand Lotan, and I’m guessing ten thousand in the enemy armada.”

Ten thousand. The same as the ships under David’s command.

JOIN US.

David recoiled as the voice echoed through his mind like a trumpet. This close to the Attractor, it was a cacophony that nearly blinded him with pain from the sound.

“Bring us in,” he said. “Prep all weapons.”

“Already done,” Phoebe said. “Gonna unleash Hell. On Hell.”

“Focus fire on the Adversary ships—use drones and defense batteries to manage the Asherans.” He tapped the console to address the fleet. “Alpha and beta groups take defensive positions around the Lotan. Gamma and delta groups engage the Adversary. Epsilon group, harry the Asherans and try to drive them off.”

“And me?” Rachel said over the comm.

“The Ark is going with us.” Going in deep.

A cluster of ten Adversary ships pummeled Lotans trying to erect a seal. The jellyfish creatures didn’t implode on destruction—they shriveled into nothing and vanished from the scanners. One by one, the Lotan dropped off his screens.

David steered the Sephirot closer. “Full missile barrage, all tubes.” Time to soften them up.

Two hundred missile tubes launched their antimatter warheads among the Adversary. Many missiles were shot down, but others impacted the ship’s skins, doing minimal damage. It was fine. Just enough to weaken those kinetic shields.

The Ark focused a plasma stream on one of the Adversary ships. A second stream joined the first, then a third. The Adversary ship banked, trying to break contact. Before it could, the plasma stream punched through its hull. A second hole ruptured, the plasma beams vanishing into the singularity beyond. Then the Adversary ship imploded.

Good work, lass.

David strafed closer. “Pulse cannons. Focus fire on the nearest foe.”

YOUR SOUL IS OURS.

For a second, he blacked out, groaning at the pain.

“What the void!” Knight shouted.

David shook his head then realized he’d yanked the joystick in his confusion. The Sephirot screamed by an Adversary ship, nearly colliding. The Adversary banked away, clearly thinking he meant to ram them. David jerked away himself, grunting, and rubbing his forehead with his wrist.

Get it together.

“I carved them up pretty good with the laser batteries,” Phoebe said. “A little warning next time. You know, if you don’t mind.”

Laser batteries.

The Adversary hadn’t fired at them with laser batteries. If it was like the Ark, maybe it didn’t have them. It might have a defensive plasma net, but that wasn’t as precise. Maybe they wouldn’t want to use such a weapon in close proximity to their allies.

David coughed, rubbed his head again. “Prepare for strafing run. We’re going in close. Laser batteries and MAG cannons only.”

“Uh, how close?” Phoebe asked.

“Very close.” David wove the Sephirot around a plasma blast and dove right in on an Adversary ship. The Sephirot handled like a dream—the finest crafted he’d ever piloted. He evaded plasma streams and closed within a hundred meters of the enemy. Then pushed it closer.

The Sephirot’s MAG cannons and batteries pounded into the Adversary, ravaging its shields and carving out pieces of its skin.

“Damn,” Phoebe said. “I didn’t know you meant close enough to kiss the fuckers.”

David banked around the Adversary, passing around again from the other side. It tried to break away, but he stuck to it like a lover. They couldn’t safely target him from this range. Their allies couldn’t target him.

He roared from the rush. Only a few pilots in the universe could fly this close this fast. David was a Rephaite class pilot. He was born for this. Born to lead the greatest battle in history.

Crippling explosions rocked the Adversary ship. His crew let up a whoop, joining him in his scream.

David broke away, then immediately dove in on another Adversary ship. This time, it tried to flee immediately. It threw plasma nets and streams at him. He banked, darting through a hole in the net, then swerved in so close he could see the pores in the thing’s skin.

He had the bloody buggers now.

“It’s the Azazel!” Ensign Barry said.

David couldn’t take his eyes off the ship he’d closed on. A fraction of a second, a hint of a mistake, and they’d collide with the enemy.

“The Ark is calling for aid.”

Rachel.

David glanced at his fleet display. The Ark had shot down three Adversary ships, but now the Azazel had begun to close on it. Atmosphere vented from multiple hull breaches on the Ark, and it banked away, trying to flee the larger Adversary ship. The thing was a nightmare—twenty kilometers of shimmering darkness and golden, fiery eyes. Tens of thousands of eyes.

RETURN TO THE TRUTH.

Blinding pain rushed through his nerves and sent him into convulsions. He tried to scream, but his throat seized up. He lost control of the Sephirot, and it collided with the Adversary ship. David shook his head, coming around, as the skin of both ships ripped open.

Damage readings flared up all over his console. He couldn’t breathe. Lost half a deck. Dozens of crewmen lost.

YOU ARE OURS.

He screamed, trying to block out the visions the Adversary sent of its own universe. Of the black hole devouring him and sucking his soul down into that reality. Of his mother being consumed as the Balthazar vanished into Hell.

The joystick slipped from his grasp and he clutched his head, trying to block the voice.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-ONE

I wish I could face the end beside David. But we both have our duties. Both are needed where we are. And still, I feel him, deep inside my soul. And I know I am not alone out here in the black.

The Sephirot jerked and recoiled, then spun wildly as David fell from the command chair. Fuck. Knight leapt up from the drone control seat and dashed over to the seat.

“Can you do it?” Phoebe shouted.

He had to. Should have practiced more. No way he could repeat David’s strafing maneuvers. Flying that close at thousands of kph was well beyond his capabilities.

The Adversary must have gotten to David. The captain lay on the floor, groaning, struggling to climb back to the chair.

Knight slapped his comm. “Suzuki! Get up to the bridge. David’s down.”

Hundreds of warnings flashed over the consoles. Too many—too many things to keep track of.

Focus. Mind over matter. He had to boost his adrenaline. Speed up his heart.

This was no different than a hand-to-hand. Timing. Speed. Precision.

He felt time begin to slow around him as his pulse quickened to superhuman levels. There was no reason preternatural reflexes couldn’t be used in the pilot’s chair. Confidence was everything.

Plasma bolts swarmed in on him. He saw the trajectories in his mind and swerved, evading them as David had done. He didn’t need to be prescient. Just adapt quickly.

An energy stream blasted out of the Azazel and slammed into the Ark. Rachel tried to bank away, but too late. It carved a piece of the Ark up like a scalpel. A section a kilometer long drifted out into space.

Knight jerked the ship around. He didn’t have time to play with the other Adversary ships. The Azazel was going to kill Rachel.

More and more damage readings cropped up on his screens. Hundreds of them. The other Adversary ships pursued him as he closed in on the Azazel. All too eager to use those weapons now there was a bit of distance.

A spin of the ship evaded the greater number of bolts, but dozens of others impacted the hull.

“Kinetic shields are down!” Barry said.

Fantastic.

The ship rocked from impact as more plasma bolts drove into it. Power relays blew all over the bridge. Someone screamed as electrical fire engulfed him.

“Helmets up!” Phoebe said. She fired the antiproton cannon—thankfully not waiting on his orders. She was really in command here anyway.

Another impact sent a shudder through the entire ship. The Sephirot suddenly became sluggish in responses and careened to port.

“What the void?” he said.

“We lost an engine!” Phoebe said. “You need to break away.”

“I can’t!” Even if he could, Rachel was on the Ark.

The Azazel and the Ark traded fire. A plasma stream blew open a hole in the Azazel, but it cost the Ark another segment, which flew free.

With an engine down, Knight’s attempts to evade plasma bolts had become ten times as difficult. But as he drew up on the Azazel, the other Adversary ships began to cease fire. Returning to focus on the Lotan.

Knight tried to repeat the maneuver David had done, but he wasn’t the pilot the other man was. And with an engine down … The Sephirot scraped the Azazel’s hull, shearing skin off both ships.

“Don’t do that!” Phoebe shouted. “We have to break away. We’ve taken too much damage, Knight.” And yet she continued firing—though Knight’s display told him they’d already lost half their weapons.

They were all going to die. The Azazel would destroy the Ark, then hunt down the Sephirot. They couldn’t escape, wounded as they were. There was nowhere to run.

Rachel would perish in a singularity. Phoebe and his unborn child would burn away to ash. All because he couldn’t do what David had done.

The Sephirot rocked as another piece blew away.

Knight wasn’t David.

But there was one thing he could do. “Order an evacuation!”

Phoebe groaned. “Damn it!” She slapped her console. “All hands abandon ship. Repeat, get to the escape pods immediately. Break away and regroup.”

Knight veered hard, trying to stick close to the Azazel. Close enough they couldn’t shoot at him.

Phoebe jumped up from her station, waving her hands. “All right, go, go, go! Everybody off the bridge.” Crewmen abandoned their stations and ran. Leah arrived just in time to help grab David. “Come on, ninja boy!”

“Go! You know I’m the fastest. I’ll buy everyone time to get to the escape pods then get off the ship.”

“Uh, no. I’m not leaving you!”

Stubborn Icie. “Get yourself and our baby out of here, now! I promise, I’m not going down with this ship.”

Phoebe hesitated for a moment, then grabbed his shoulder and squeezed. “If you get yourself killed I’m gonna kick your ass.” And she ran.

Thankfully.

Just a little longer. He had to keep close to the enemy. Just long enough for them to escape. Because he had to save them all. There was one thing he could do better than David. Better than anyone.

“Computer. Plot trajectory to the Azazel’s hangar. On my screen now.”

He glanced again and again at the escape pod report. At last they were all gone. No one else on this ship. Just him. And one more mission.

He banked around the Azazel one more time, broke away, then looped around. “I’m sorry, Phoebe.” Maybe there was no redemption for a Pariah. But he was damn sure going to try.

After ramping the MAGs to full fire, he braced himself, clutching onto the edge of his command chair. MAG rounds blasted open the already weakened hangar. The Sephirot screamed forward.

A heartbeat before collision, he reversed the thrusters, slowing his ship. It scraped along the inner hangar, tearing a massive gouge out. Even with Inertial Negation, the impact flung him from the chair and he rolled along the bridge to collide with another console.

His ship shrieked to a halt, now wedged deep in a hangar open to space. Fires sprang up all over the bridge.

Knight pushed himself up. It was time. These little shits had no idea what was coming for them.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-TWO

I would not allow myself to consider that David had fallen. It was unthinkable. I had just gotten him back. And I knew—I knew—he would not leave me again.

Pain flared through Rachel’s psionic nerves—the mental screams of the Ark as the Azazel tore her to pieces. It was like having someone carve off pieces of her own flesh. Almost more than she could bear.

“Rachel!” Jeremiah shouted.

She waved him away, and he returned to the weapons console. Her brother was no natural, but he seemed to feel better helping.

Rachel wasn’t certain she should keep shooting at the enemy flagship. She’d seen the Sephirot crash into it, but there was no implosion. It meant the ship was still whole inside. She’d swooped to pick up as many escape pods as she could, but she could never be certain there were no people left alive on the ship. David … he must have flown the ship inside. What desperation forced his hand, she couldn’t guess.

Instead, she launched wave after wave of plasma bolts at the other Adversary ships. With a mental command she opened a channel to the Lotan.

“How much longer?”

“We will. Be ready very. Soon.”

Soon? How soon was soon? Did these aliens even understand her conception of time? Allied ships disappeared from her screen rapidly. This place had become a graveyard. How many ships had they lost so far? Two thousand? More than that? And just as many on the other side.

It was Armageddon. This was how the universe ended. Swept away and swallowed by the greatest sin of the Angels.

But Rachel would not give up while she had breath left. If it cost her life, she would take down as many of the Adversary ships as possible. Let the rest of the universe manage Asherah.

Another Adversary vessel crumpled and imploded under her plasma stream.

The Azazel sent a similar beam at the Ark. Rachel banked away, trying to escape it. The thing was too powerful to fight alone. All she could do was try to keep the other ships between her and it.

Her enemy pursued her at first, then turned on the Lotan.

Shit.

She couldn’t win. Rachel spun the Ark around, beginning another barrage of plasma bolts along the Azazel’s hull. Even if David was inside, she … she had no choice. If the Lotan failed, the whole universe was lost. She had to save humanity … she had to … David!

And yet, she could only bring herself to fire along the ship’s wings. She couldn’t risk actually destroying it with her husband inside. She just could not do it. God forgive her.

The bridge door swung open and Phoebe rushed in. “Get us in there!”

“What?”

“Knight’s on that ship! The mangy, stuffed, monkey-brained man-child decided to go one-man army on them! Get me over there, Rachel!”

“I-I can’t, Phoebe.”

“What the void do you mean, you can’t?”

“Where’s Mac?”

Phoebe grabbed her shoulders and shook her. “David’s with Leah. Get us back there.”

A second later, Jeremiah pulled Phoebe off her. The Icie didn’t fight it—which was good because Miah would have gotten his ass handed to him.

David was safe. God, David was safe. “It’s not possible,” Rachel said. “I have to protect the Lotan, Phoebe. And even if I didn’t, we can’t close on the Azazel. We’re too big and we’d be blown to pieces.”

“No!”

Knight was out there on the flagship of Hell. Alone. From the day they’d met, he’d been protecting her. At first, he’d told himself it was for money. But Rachel had known there was more to him than that. Now, in the End of Days, he was still protecting her. Protecting everyone. Her breath caught at the thought of it. At even considering leaving him there to face this by himself.

But all she’d said to Phoebe was true. There was no way to help him, and she had to put the good of humanity first.

“Phoebe … If he’s alive on there … What do you think he’d want?”

“I don’t care what he wants—I want him! I want him back!”

Rachel shut her eyes, allowing herself just a moment. She’d said her goodbyes to David, just in case. But Knight … She’d never really said it. And now, maybe she never would.

“I’m sorry, Phoebe. Knight is on his own.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-THREE

I wished I could have gone in to help Knight. But I had told Phoebe the truth—he was beyond my reach. For so long I’d trusted him to protect my life. Now, I had to trust him to save all of our lives.

The airlock opened, revealing the decompressed hangar. His boots magnetized, Knight clung to the deck. His katana was slung over his shoulder, his throwing knives strapped to his thighs, and a string of grenades stuck to his waist. His kyoketsu at his side and pulse pistol in hand. He had everything he needed. Everything except time.

With a mad dash he ran toward the inner airlock. It buzzed and he stepped inside, accompanied by the whoosh of air as it filled. Still he kept his helmet formed. Beyond the airlock, his telekinetic senses picked up dozens and dozens of humanoid forms, weapons trained on him.

In a split second, the doors would open, and they would riddle him with MAG rounds. This was the Asheran military, so they might even have plasma rifles. He arced his arms outward, telekinetically grabbing and priming eight of the ten plasma grenades off his belt.

The doors opened. Knight leapt through in a rush, flinging his arms outward. Grenades flew forward in a semi-circle, detonating around the cargo bay beyond. Plasma explosions cascaded through the massive room. Asheran cyborgs screamed in the chaos.

And Knight rushed forward. His pulse pounded. Time slowed. He shot a man in the face, then another and another as he dashed forward. He flipped over a stack of crates and swung his sword in the same motion, splitting a skull.

Cyborgs rushed in around him. A man punched with cybernetically enhanced strength and speed. Knight twisted to the side and the blow landed with a thud on a crate, sending it flying into one of the man’s allies. Knight slid to his knees and chopped the cyborg’s legs off.

He came up in a roll, shot another man, then leapt onto a woman’s shoulders.

“Somebody kill him!” someone shouted.

A twist of his ankles flipped the woman through the air, spinning her horizontally into her allies as Knight landed on another crate. He dashed forward, the crates exploding behind him as plasma bursts struck where he had stood a heartbeat before.

“GR on!” he said. He jumped from the crates onto the wall and his boots stuck fast, relativizing his gravity to the new surface. Continuing his momentum, he pressed on, running forward and shooting down any cyborgs stupid enough to get in his way.

These people meant nothing. He had to get to the core. He had to detonate the QEMP. This would all be over. Every other person on this ship would be incapacitated. Just like the Ark. He could do this. He had to do this.

He flipped off the wall and landed in the midst of a trio guarding the door. Before they could even draw a bead on him three quick slashes of his sword had felled them all. Cyborgs pursued him as he rushed through the next hall.

They would never catch him.

Asheran fools taken by the Beast. Their lives and souls were forfeit long ago. The floor sloped beneath him as he sprinted downhill. Down to the inner chamber. He shot and cut down more people than he could count. They fell in droves. Blood splattered his uniform and blade.

He needed to move faster. He skidded to a stop, then used his sword to slice a panel out of the floor. He leapt onto it, then lifted it telekinetically. With a mental command he sent it shooting forward at hundreds of kilometers per hour. Even with his reflexes, he could never shoot all the foes before him at this speed. But then, they couldn’t well shoot him either.

Still, his HUD showed his kinetic shields were failing. He’d taken dozens of plasma bursts in the chaos of the cargo bay and since.

It was time to wrap this up.

Concentrate. He could do this. It was all in his mind. And a lifetime in the Gibborim had honed it into a weapon. He’d been wrong. Raziel hadn’t made him just a weapon—he’d made him a war machine. Knight punched his fist downward, ripping through the lower deck with a wave of telekinetic energy.

His vision blurred a moment, and he stumbled off his surfing panel, tripped, and hit the wall. This was taking too much out of him. But if he failed … Hell would kill Phoebe and Rachel and all of humanity. They’d needed a Pariah and he’d become that. Now they needed something else. And he would be that too. Because he was the only one who could.

He leapt down the hall, calling his surfing platform down after him.

Cyborgs knocked down in the telekinetic explosion had started to rise. One drew a bead on him. Knight shot the man. Then his pulse pistol flew from his hand, clattering away.

A pair of Angels stood nearby, one with a hand extended toward him. Both had their wings stretched out, metal pinions scraping the walls as they advanced on him.

Knight smirked and drew his kyoketsu, switching the katana to his off hand. Then he ran forward, leapt to the wall, and flipped over the Angels. They were fast, wings slashing the space he’d been a split-second before. Fast—but not fast enough. His sword severed an Angel’s arm. Continuing his spin in a wide arc, his kyoketsu opened the other one’s stomach. The first Angel screamed in pain, while the other stared at Knight, mouth agape. Unable to fathom what had just happened.

Knight decapitated the stupefied Angel.

An arc of his kyoketsu split a cyborg’s plasma rifle in half. The weapon exploded, engulfing its user in plasma fires. Knight ran onward, bursting into the inner engineering deck only to find hundreds of cyborgs and dozens of Angels inside. All training weapons on him.

He spun, stepping back outside the door as plasma blasts rippled over the room. Too many.

This would have to be close enough. He snatched the QEMP grenade, primed it, then tossed it into the room. A second later, an energy wave rushed over him, knocking out his HUD. That would have fried any guns in the area.

He stepped back through the doorway to find all the cyborgs and Angels collapsed on the floor. He’d done it. He’d taken the Azazel. Now he just needed to …

An Angel stepped forward, his face concealed under a dark hood. As he drew near, he pulled it back, revealing a weathered but ageless face. His goatee and eyes were both jet black. The Angel flexed his shoulders, reflecting light off his bladed wings. “Did you really think I wouldn’t have a defense for a weapon I invented?”

Knight stalked forward, sword in one hand, kyoketsu in the other. “You must be Apollyon.”

“And you must be the Nephilim. You certainly know how to make a mess.”

Knight continued toward the fallen Angel. The man responsible for all of this. “I’m not done yet.”

The Singularity Drive was just beyond. If the QEMP hadn’t taken out everyone on this ship, releasing containment on the Drive sure as void would.

“Yes. You are.” The Angel leapt into the air, covering the distance with a single beat of his wings.

Knight rolled to the side, whipping his kyoketsu in an arc as he did. Apollyon moved just as quickly, deflecting it with his wings. Before Knight could even react the Angel twisted, landing a hook into Knight’s abdomen. The impact sent Knight spiraling backward through the air. His lungs seized and his vision darkened. He landed hard, tumbling several times before coming to a stop.

He groaned, pushed himself up, then spat blood. It stained his visor even as the HUD came back online. Kinetic shields were low, but at least they ought to soften any further blows now.

The Angel stalked forward, fingers curled into claws. “I’m going to enjoy this.”

“Not for long.” Knight charged forward, rolled, and came up swinging both weapons. He launched attack after attack, swinging sword and kyoketsu in an endless, spiraling barrage. Apollyon blocked and parried, falling back under the assault, but deflecting every attack on his wings.

Knight grazed the Angel along the ribs with his sword. Apollyon accepted the blow, bringing his wings together then snapping them apart. The monowire cord that tethered his kyoketsu blade snapped as the Angel scissored it between his wings. The knife flew wide and punched through a wall, revealing the Singularity Drive beyond.

Fuck. Knight tossed the useless hilt aside and switched his sword back to his main hand.

Apollyon stepped back and drew a hand along the cut Knight had opened on his ribs. The Angel looked down at his own blood, then glowered at Knight. Then he extended his hand, and Knight felt telekinetic energy form. He saw nothing.

Bastard was going to attack him with it. Knight flipped forward, swinging his sword downward. He’d sever the Angel before—

His sword stopped dead in the air like it hit a wall. Apollyon had raised his wrist as though he held a sword parrying the blow. The Angel buffeted his wings, flinging Knight backward. Knight’s own sword clattered away and he tumbled along the ground, rolling.

What the void was that?

He allowed his eyes to relax, to let his telekinetic senses shape his sight. His mind’s eye revealed the edge of a telekinetic sword the Angel had formed—an invisible mirror to Knight’s own. A sword with no substance and infinite force.

“Impressive.”

“Child—you cannot begin to imagine what I am capable of. You are no match for a being who has witnessed the birth and death of universes. Look onto the face of your God and tremble before Him.”

Knight reached a hand toward his fallen sword. It spun through the air and he caught it, then charged forward, roaring at the pompous man before him. No words could define this being’s arrogance. No accusation could cover the sum of his crimes. So Knight would say nothing.

Left, right, feint, dodge, parry. With every move Knight’s speed increased until the Angel’s face began to fall. That first hint of uncertainty Knight knew so well.

Submit!

The sudden telepathic assault sent Knight stumbling backward. Apollyon cleaved downward, splintering Knight’s sword, then telekinetically flung the pieces aside.

Fuck. What happened to the thing being nigh unbreakable?

“You impress us, Nephilim. Serve and you may yet live.”

Knight grit his jaw. Raziel had tried the same tactic, and Knight had overcome that too. He steeled his mind. In his fury, he’d let his defenses down. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. And if the Angel could form a sword like that …

Knight focused all his mental energy, condensing it into a replica of the sword Apollyon had created, then grabbed it with both hands.

The Angel snarled, clearly shocked Knight had managed that. “You must know you cannot win.” Apollyon jumped forward, beat his wings to fly, and came down swinging.

Now on the defensive, Knight fell back under a barrage as fast as any he himself could launch. The Angel was right. He wasn’t certain he could win this. And other Angels and cyborgs on the ship might have survived the QEMP. They could be combing for him as this drew on. Fail now, and this was all for nothing.

With a defiant roar, he rolled away from the Angel and made a dash for the core room. He could feel the Angel just behind, wings carrying him faster than even Knight could run.

Knight twisted, grabbed a plasma grenade and primed it. Apollyon landed and raised his wings to shield himself from the blast. Knight flung it out behind himself, telekinetically guiding the grenade right through the breach his kyoketsu had created in the wall. Spiraling into the Singularity Drive.

For a heartbeat, Apollyon’s eyes went wide. “What have you—”

The explosion rocked the deck, sending them both tumbling to the ground. Knight recovered first and rose in a sprint. Running faster than he ever had before. Time to get the fuck off this ship.

Behind him, he felt the tidal forces building as containment began to fail. The Angel chased after him, but time was already dilating, making him seem to move in slow motion.

Knight telekinetically ripped another panel from the floor and jumped on it. The ship was disintegrating behind him, being ripped into its component molecules and sucked into Hell. The panel shot around corner after corner and up the slope ahead, back toward the hangar. With every passing second he felt it slowing, taking more of his mental energy to keep it propelled forward against the growing gravity.

There was no way he was going down with this ship. Phoebe was waiting for him. His baby was … The baby would know his father. The Sephirot would still have escape pods. He could make it.

Apollyon shot past him, guided by his own telekinetic surfing panel. The Angel streaked into the cargo bay ahead of Knight, sparing not a glance at the chaos Knight had created here.

“You have ruined everything!” the Angel shrieked. Apollyon had positioned himself before the door to the hangar. Knight’s only way out. “You may have destroyed this ship, Nephilim, but you will join me in Hell. I will tear you limb from limb and feed your soul to the void! I am faster, stronger, and telekinetically more powerful. You have nothing over me. Embrace despair, mortal!”

Knight jumped down from his panel and paused in front of the Angel, who formed his telekinetic sword again. Apollyon was right. Knight could try to fight him again, but there was little chance he could win. Not before this ship was sucked into Hell.

And so he stared down the sneering Angel. “You’re wrong,” Knight said. “No matter what happens, I have two things you don’t.”

The Angel snickered. “Really?”

“Someone loves me.” Nothing could ever take that from him.

“Pathetic. Is that all?”

“One more thing separates us, Angel.” Knight took one more step toward him. “I’m wearing a space suit.”

“What—”

Knight telekinetically ripped the door off the airlock, breaching the decompressed hangar. Air rushed through it in a massive wave, sucking Apollyon into the void.

Arms folded by his side, Knight shot through the opening and into space. Streaming by the fallen Angel. Apollyon opened his mouth to scream. Nothing came out.

Knight gave him the finger as he flew past.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-FOUR

August 27th

I knew the man history chose as its Pariah. The man humanity revered then reviled. Perhaps I never knew who he was, but I do know he was, after all, just a man. Flawed in his ways and beautiful in his heart. And whatever anyone ever says of him—I know he was a hero. I never saw Knight again. Some say he died in that final battle, drawn into Hell with the fallen. Others claim Angels carried him away to Heaven. And some say God punished him for his sins, cursed him to roam the stars alone until the end of time.

With the loss of their flagship, the Adversary began a mass retreat, routed. Rachel pursued them as long as she was able, but thousands escaped beyond the bounds of known space. Still, she’d call the day a win. David recovered the moment the Lotan’s new seals were activated, and led the attack against the remaining enemies. The Adversary and the Angels both lurked somewhere beyond known space, and Rachel suspected mankind had not seen the last of either.

Now, some weeks later, she stood with him in the Ark’s hangar, headed back for New Eden. The Ark’s records said the planet had once been called Mars, but everyone referred to the red world by its new name now.

Jeremiah handed her a report from the planet. He’d withdrawn from the Redeemers, as had most of his fellows. Rachel glanced at the report. It mentioned several supposed Gog sightings around New Eden. The Gogmagog was legally disbanded, but the spies still cropped up all around. Working for the highest bidder, no doubt.

“Send it on to Degana,” Rachel said.

Jeremiah nodded, then put a hand on her shoulder, before trotting off. He didn’t say much these days. But it helped just having him around.

David had turned to Phoebe, whose belly was just showing through her formfitting uniform. “Listen, lass,” he said. “He’s gone. I know you need time, but really, the new Sentinels are going to need you.”

Phoebe shook her head. “No way. He’s too stubborn to die. He’s out there, somewhere. And I’m going to find him.”

“We would have heard something by now, lass.”

“He’s the most hated man in human history, David. I kinda think he might be happy to be presumed dead, you know? Anyway, I’m going.”

Rachel squeezed her husband’s hand. Phoebe didn’t show it, but Rachel could feel an inexplicable hope wafting off the Icie. The woman should have been crushed, and she wasn’t. Maybe she knew something the rest of the universe didn’t. Or maybe she just couldn’t face reality. Knight had saved them all. He’d saved the universe from Hell itself.

“Where will you start?” she asked.

“Zarethon.”

The Expanse of Nod, the home of the Lotan. It explained why Phoebe had been so insistent on getting her brother to come with her. No one knew the Expanse better than the Sons of Cain. Plus, Ezra was just enough of a Psych to pilot the Conduit in a pinch. The man, now with a patch over his empty eye socket, had jumped at the chance to repay his sister. So Rachel had given Phoebe Raziel’s ship. If the Angel ever recovered, Rachel might awaken him. He could deal with the loss of the ship then.

“Good luck, lass,” David said.

Rachel hugged her. “You’ll always have a place with us.”

Phoebe scoffed. “Please. I have a place anywhere I go. I’m totally adorable.” With that, she boarded the ship.

Rachel and David watched it glide out through the airlock tube, disappearing into the Conduit.

“Do you think she’ll find him?” David asked.

Rachel had serious doubt Knight lived, but … but the Gehennan had surprised her before. Repeatedly. “I hope so.”

David kissed her cheek and led her by the hand to the other shuttle. Her next goodbye might be a bit less heartfelt, but she owed it to him. The man had certainly suffered enough for his part in all this.

Caleb and Leah were preparing to meet the Wake of Stars. Hannah Hertz had agreed to drop them off on Rehobath, where Leah claimed she might be able to grow new eyes for Caleb. The NER had lifted the Angel ban on genetic engineering, making the task easier. Of course, Rachel feared it would lead to a whole new slew of problems. After all, the Angels had engineered themselves into what they became. God only knew what mankind would do to itself from here on.

For obvious reasons, the ban on cybernetics remained a guiding precept of the NER. Rachel had explained to Degana—in excruciating detail—why no one should be allowed to implant new cybernetics in the Republic. In case the woman had needed any more convincing, David had painted a few colorful mental pictures of the things the Adversary had done to him. Though, with the seals in place, he no longer had to struggle so hard against the Beast. Rachel felt the peace that radiated off him every moment from the quiet. Still, the Synod had a passed a law mandating removal of cybernetics where possible.

“Who’s there?” Caleb asked, turning toward them as they approached.

“It’s Rachel and David,” Leah said.

“Rachel,” the man said. “I—I’m sorry. For everything.”

Rachel pressed her palm to his cheek. “I hope you get your sight back.”

Caleb shrugged. “It was worth losing it. But I have great confidence in Doctor Suzuki.” Doctor Suzuki? Damn, the man really had become a suck-up. “I … I want to ask something of you. When I’m gone, will you let Rebekah go?”

“She’s an enemy of the state,” David said.

“I know, but you pardoned everyone else for their sins … Maybe she deserves a fresh start, too. She did help us.”

Rachel grunted. “Then why after you’re gone?”

“Because I … I can’t face her. After all she’s done, I need to be rid of her. But I understand what it’s like to make a mistake. I don’t want her to spend forever in a prison. She has a chance to be free of the Beast now.”

“Uh …” Rachel ran a hand through her hair and looked to David. It was really up to him. He was the acting commander of the Sentinels until the Synod appointed a new one.

David scratched his head. “Aye, well. I’ll keep her under observation a few months. If she seems penitent, then maybe we can talk about parole.”

A snicker escaped her at the thought of a fallen Angel out on parole. The holy universe was a strange place. “Good luck to you both.”

“And to you,” Leah said. “I heard your brother is helping you start that university. Maybe I’ll stop by to see it.”

“Yeah, but give us a year or so to get it going.”

David slipped his hand back into hers and led her away. “The Lotan contacted us this morning. They’ve demanded a consulate be established on the edge of the Expanse so that they might advise us.”

Maybe it would start that way. Maybe the Lotan would offer advice—but what would happen if the NER decided to ignore it? Would suggestions become orders? Would the Lotan grow into the tyrants the Angels had once been? And what of the Angels themselves? If the NER ever agreed to revive them, would they accept the accord with the Lotan?

Maybe they were making the same mistakes all over again. Turning to outside authority to govern mankind. Or maybe they were making all new ones.

“Is the Synod going to cooperate?”

David nodded. “We owe the Lotan that much, at least. We’re building one in orbit of Gehenna.”

Gehenna. A planet that had once been its own little Hell would one day become a symbol of peace between species.

“And us? What will we do, Mac?”

“Well, lass … That’s up to you. We’ve both got schools to run. But as for personal time, I have a suggestion. It might be time to get to work on those babies.”

Rachel smiled. It might at that.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-FIVE

All I can say is this. History may blame the Pariah for Armageddon. But without him, no one would have been left to remember it at all. Armageddon came—and we won. The Adversary lurks on the edge of known space. Perhaps we will struggle against them for centuries. But mankind’s eyes are open. The door to the future stands wide open. And we have been given one last chance to make our own destiny.

Epilogue

Viscous fluid filled much of a Lotan ship, but they had dried out a chamber for human guests. In reality, the ships were symbiotic extensions of the Lotan themselves, though they had not bothered to explain that to humanity at large.

One of the seven-headed creatures manifested through the walls of Knight’s chamber. He preferred to think of it as a chamber, rather than a cell. He had seen enough of cells in his lifetime. And though the Lotan seemed disinclined to let him go, neither did they call him a prisoner, per se.

He had taken days to recover from his injuries and prolonged exposure to space, drifting at the edge of the event horizon. He’d drifted in so deep he’d thought nothing could reach him. But the Lotan were not like other beings. And time must have dilated around him—what seemed hours to him would have been days, maybe weeks to the rest of the world.

Knight rose from the floor to face the creature. “Did you send the signal I asked?”

“Yes,” one of the heads said. “It is. Sent.”

At least Phoebe would know he lived. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to see her again. Or maybe he would. He’d begun to think nothing was impossible, as long as there was life. And he was alive. Vibrantly, beautifully alive thanks to what Raziel had done to him. He was human, and he was something more. Injuries that should have killed a human had faded. Limitations that would have once bound him had been broken.

“Why do you keep me here?”

“Education. You shall. Be. Our Emissary. One day. A bridge between. Three worlds. First. You must. Learn.”

“Learn what?”

“Everything.”

Knight smirked. “Then we’d better get started.”

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-SIX

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