Into the Mouth of Hell
The legions of Hell had tried to conquer the Church District. They’d failed. But they’d exacted a terrible cost.
The avatars had carved deep, blackened gouges into the ground. The energy blasts had slagged setts and cobblestone, destroyed shops and houses, blasted gas and water lines. Multiple alleys had been blasted into rubble. Entire city blocks had to be condemned.
Nagase’s bar had been blown up. Yuri’s safe house too. Whether by design or accident, Yuri couldn’t guess, but he strongly suspected the former. Say what you want about the New Gods, but they had superb intelligence-gathering capabilities.
The Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, the church that had given the district its name, had taken the brunt of the assault. It was gone. Obliterated. Erased from the surface of the planet. Even the statue of Mary was only a memory now. Every building around it had suffered the same fate.
The New Gods were sending a message: thou shalt have no other gods before us.
It didn’t matter. The people would rebuild the district. Even if the insurance companies would not cover the costs, even if city would not chip in, even if the New Gods themselves decreed otherwise, they would rebuild.
This place was their home. Their community. Their homeland. A sanctuary against the madness of the world, defaced by the New Gods but not defeated. Not even the New Gods could take that away from them.
But the team couldn’t help.
Price had made that clear. Nagase reinforced the message. After the meet at the Field Office, Yuri visited Nagase at a cafe at the riverfront. There, Nagase delivered the bad news.
The merchants’ committee had decided to terminate the team’s security contract. They would make final payments effective immediately. The mission was over.
“It’s not your fault,” Nagase said. “The Peebs and the New Gods pressured the committee into doing it. That was part of the conditions of your immunity agreement. If we didn’t comply, they made it clear that they would hunt you to the ends of the earth.”
“I appreciate everything you’ve done for us,” Yuri said.
“Sorry we couldn’t do more.”
“You can do more,” Will said. “Get more guns and ammo, and get ready for what’s coming next.”
The newspapers to the contrary, peace had not descended on Riveria. Only a ceasefire, and a fragile one at that. It would last only until the New Gods found another excuse to kick off the next chapter in their never-ending war.
The New Gods only looked after their own. The PSB didn’t care about the people. That meant the people had to take care of themselves.
Yuri and his team couldn’t protect them anymore. But they had shown them how to protect themselves. And that was something the PSB and the New Gods couldn’t take away from them.
The parking garage had escaped the fighting unscathed. On the roof of the garage, the team took their time sweeping their vehicles. They hunted for bugs, bombs, anything that might be used against them, anything that didn’t belong in their vehicles.
They found nothing out of the ordinary.
“That’s a pleasant surprise,” Karim remarked.
“Better make the most of it,” Kayla said.
Will rolled his arms through wide circles. He’d parked his own gravcar next to the others’, and taken even more care in his sweep.
“Guess I’ll be sticking with you guys for the time being,” Will said. “Where are we headed next?”
“Zen sent me a message this morning. I’ll forward it to all of you,” Yuri said.
A few finger gestures, a spoken command, and Yuri’s eyeshields forwarded the message to everyone else’s.
I’ve been talking to our mutual friend, formerly known as Alex. He’s got a job for us in Babylon. It sounds like we’ll need all hands on deck for this one. Interested?
“Out of the frying pan and into the fire,” Will muttered.
“I get the feeling that if we do this, there won’t be any more immunity agreements ever again,” Karim said. “But I also get the feeling that if we don’t do this, we won’t be able to live with ourselves either.”
“Alex is on the level. Can’t hurt to see what he has to say, at least,” Kayla said.
“Death and madness, with a serving of high tech,” Karim said.
“Better than sitting on our asses doing nothing,” Will said.
Yuri turned to take them all in, looking at each of them in the eye.
“Babylon?” Yuri asked.
“Babylon,” Kayla said.
“Once more into the breach,” Karim said.
“We’re going back there, we’ll have to make it worth it,” Will said.
Sparks danced in Yuri’s chest. He’d spent so long traveling alone, he’d almost forgotten what it was like to ride back into war with his brothers.
Kayla, too. She’d stuck by him all this while. She was with him to the end, just like everyone else on the team. He was grateful. Grateful beyond his capacity to express.
He had a feeling that this time, they were going to ride into the mouth of hell. But at least they were all going together.
And maybe, just maybe, they would ride out together.
“Let’s go,” Yuri said.
They clambered aboard their gravcars. They fired up their gravity mirrors. They lifted off into the sky. They headed northeast. Northeast to Babylon, the capital of the world, the throne of the New Gods, the city of gods and monsters.
Northeast to death, damnation, and destiny.
