The Agnus Dei Gambit

Brooke was staying on the cliff. We were about to stir the hornet's nest and I didn't want her anywhere near the inevitable consequence. Chelsea wouldn't appreciate us losing her daughter and it's never a good idea to make a mortal enemy out of a super-hacker. Of course, we'd probably be dead by then anyhow.

Brooke's contribution would be to bring down the Citadel's internal security systems. I didn't miss the irony that we were going to prevent a cyberattack with a cyberattack. The important point was that we would launch ours first.

Kelley was standing next to me wearing a base-jumping suit over her tactical gear. It would let her fly from the cliff edge to the Citadel. The idea was for her to soar to the roof unspooling aircraft cable as she flew. Then, I would zipline along the cable once she'd fastened it to a battlement.

Kelly was the right person to do the base-jumping because she's the agile catlike one. The lift-to-weight ratio of a suit like that is minimal. So, I would have dropped like a stone.

Kelley stepped into thin air and glided gracefully down to the roof of the building. She had sixty feet of elevation and fifty yards of distance to cover and the updraft was substantial. Plus, it was dark on the roof. But my wife made it look effortless as she flared out of her drop and landed lightly. I swear she was a cat in a former life. Besides being nimble as one, she can see in the dark.

I sensed the tension on the cable as she secured it to a stone battlement and then there were two blinks from the pinpoint light that she was carrying. I glanced at Brooke, who looked like an ancient dark goddess in her skintight tac suit. I nodded as I stepped into space. She gave me a jaunty grin and a thumbs up. She was definitely her mother's child, an apex predator in the making.

The wall of the Citadel came up abruptly. I applied the brake and was dangling seventy feet in the air next to the parapet. I reached over the lip and pulled myself through the gap in the crenellation. That wasn't as easy as it sounds since I was carrying all of our weapons and a hundred pounds of explosives. I may not be a cat but I'm an excellent pack animal.

We donned the head harnesses and pulled the Armasight Gen 3 Ghost night optic system down. It was like an otherworldly presence had turned on a light. I had used the old night vision goggles in the Army. They lit up everything in various shades of bright green and made it hard to judge distances. These new generation goggles were like watching black and white TV and it really increased your depth perception.

I gave Brooke the two blinks that told her to shut down the Citadel's perimeter security. We tippy toed over to the stairwell hatch. Kelly was moving like a hunting cat. I did my best not to trip over anything. I gingerly raised the cover. There were no alarm bells and flashing lights. Brooke had taken care of their electronic security. Good girl!!

A sturdy ladder led down to the stone floor of a small open area. The few candles guttering in holders in the wall provided some light. There were only twelve doors, three to each side. I guessed that those were the Apostle's rooms. We could have started by killing whoever was in them. But that wasn't our objective now. The new aim was preventing the end of the world.

The stairway leading to the third floor was narrow and circular with a counterclockwise twist. That was for defensive purposes. In medieval times, anybody right-handed who was fighting their way up the stairs would be hindered by the wall. Whereas their rival would be able to swing their sword freely.

We navigated the stairs back to back, with me facing forward and Kelley facing rearward. That was the usual arrangement. We'd rehearsed it many times. It was because I had the CBR and also because Kelly can walk backward down a flight of stairs without tripping.

The next level looked like a barracks. It was pitch black and the interior was spartan. The smell of unwashed bodies was dreadful. There was absolutely nothing stirring. But there were perhaps thirty beds packed together and a lot of snoring.

One of the bodies coughed and sat up. We froze. We were effectively invisible in our tac-suits. But he was looking right at us and there is a faint residual glow from the image intensifier unit in our night vision.

The guard stared for a heart stopping couple of seconds. I heard Kelley pull one of her knives. Then he smacked his lips, rolled over, drew the covers back over him, farted loudly and lay still.

I exhaled. I heard a little "snick" as Kelley put her knife back. That was close. There were just too many guards, even if I DID have an automatic weapon.

We tippy-toed over to the stairs, hearts pounding. I planted four Claymore mines across the way down. Each was linked to a motion sensor. It was a basic safety measure. The mines would deter anybody who tried to follow us to the lower levels.

The second level was another thing entirely. It might have been the original basilica. It was a huge chapel, dark and cavernous, lit by a few dozen big candles situated underneath a long colonnade. The only things missing were the Gregorian chants. The silence was unnerving.

There were wooden benches in orderly rows along both sides. Those must have been for the followers. Then there were splendid, cushioned stalls in the chancel which were clearly for a few exalted types. Those had to be the Apostles.

The enormous altar at the head of the chancel appeared to be made of dark wood like mahogany. It gleamed with precious stones. More importantly, there was a laboratory test tube sitting at the foot of a huge golden cross in the middle of the altar. That had to be it.

The vial was surrounded by candles. As I reached for it, I thought to myself, "Well-well-well, we can check one thing off the list." Kelley whispered urgently, "Wait!!" I stopped with my hand hovering over the tube.

She peered under it and said, "It's wired." Thank God for my clever wife.

She said, "It's a pressure switch. Let me substitute something that's close to the same weight." She took a single 7.62 round from my spare clip. Then, she very slowly and carefully placed the bullet on the plate as she flicked the vial off. It was a tense couple of seconds.

I pocketed the vial and gave Kelley a relieved look. She gave me a grimace back. Neither of us had any idea how many people were actually in this spooky place and we had no desire to find out.

There was nothing left to see in the chapel. So we proceeded to the ground floor. That space stank, even more than the third floor and there was the distinctive smell of animals. The floor itself was covered in straw and there were perhaps seventy bodies, strewn on it, sleeping.

Three guards were awake. Fortunately, they were turned away from us looking out of the arrow slits. I had a Surefire Socom556 7.62 suppressor on the CBR. It would muffle the shots to the level of a cough.

There were two coughs and the first two guards fell like their strings were cut. The third draped out of his arrow slit with a knife sticking out of the back of his neck. Nobody stirred. The room was cold and dank. They must have coughed a lot in there.

It was baffling. We had reached the bottom floor but there was still no data center. Then we heard voices emanating from the back of the keep. We ghosted over and found an open trap door at the very rear of the building. That led down into a catacomb.

The impression was like gazing from the fourteenth century into the twenty first. It was a classic ops-center. There were control stations, monitors, blade racks, and the accompanying cabinets and cabling. I knew we'd found our target.

Two men were conversing at a small utility table in front of a whiteboard. It was covered with documents and two laptops. They looked like they might be brothers. One was the creepy guy. The other was slightly older, but he was just as amazingly beautiful.

I should have shot them right away. But I wanted to have a conversation with the creepy guy first. His sins, which included knocking out my wife, required a much more up-close-and-personal discussion.

Both men looked up surprised, as we started down the stairs. I said, "Don't move!!" That was a stupid thing to do. I already knew that the creepy guy was some kind of physical freak. Apparently, it ran in the family. In a flash, both brothers were out of their chairs and diving in opposite directions. It was an immediate and instinctive response like they'd practiced it.

I gave Kelley a "here we go again" look, shucked everything I'd been carrying and took off after the creepy guy. Kelly gave me a predatory grin, dropped her equipment, and went after the other dude.

The area that we were in was the entire footprint of the keep. It was huge. There were thick stone pillars as befitted an ancient dungeon. But otherwise, we were in the twenty-first century. The entire space was air conditioned and lit by fluorescent lighting and all kinds of computer gear cluttered around the place.

Kelley is a huntress. She stalks people. I'm not that subtle. It's one of the advantages of being built like a tank.

The creepy guy had disappeared behind a pillar to my left. I charged around it and found myself in a wide aisle, lined by equipment racks. The creepy guy was standing, waiting, with a contemptuous smile and a gleaming sword. I thought, "Seriously??!!"

The normal reaction when threatened by a pointy object is to pause. But my advantage is my strength. So, I had to get close to the guy as quickly as possible. Consequently, I never stopped running.

The creepy guy froze. He clearly hadn't expected me to just keep coming. By the time he'd recovered, it was too late. He was quicker than any man I've ever faced. But I'd given him no time to react.

He couldn't swing the sword, so he thrust with it. The thrust sliced through my left pectoral glanced off a rib and exited clean through the lower part of my lat. The pain was instant and devastating.

He tried to pull the sword back. But I had the counter to that. I ran myself FURTHER onto it, right up to the hilt. So, I was able to get a good grip on his throat and he couldn't withdraw his weapon.

A painful and inelegant solution? Perhaps - but it was extremely gratifying to feel his windpipe begin to crush.

The creepy guy's remarkable speed meant nothing now. It was like a tiger versus an elephant. He might have been fast and ferocious. But he simply didn't have the size or brute strength to save himself once we'd come to grips. Now, it was just a matter of ending the dance.

He tried the usual countermoves. First, he did an inside arm strike, trying to knock my hands apart. My biceps are probably as big as his thighs. I laughed in his face. Then he tried to hit me in the throat. He was lightning fast. I almost didn't get my chin down in time to deflect it. Finally, he tried a solar plexus strike. A lifetime of vertical crunches has turned my stomach into plate armor. That just bounced off.

I could see that I was getting to him. He began wild thrashing which only burned up what was left of the oxygen in his blood. Finally, he slowed and began to sag.

Then an odd thing happened. His eyes opened and he looked directly at me. It wasn't hostile like you'd expect from a guy you were in the process of killing. It was exalted, like he was undergoing an amazing experience. Perhaps it was the Pearly Gates. Or maybe death was what he'd been seeking all along.

His arms went limp and his head hung down. I kept him that way for a full minute. Then I dropped him. I felt for his pulse, nothing! The account was closed.

The creepy guy's sword was still sticking through my left side. I gingerly pulled it back out, being careful to stay in the original path. The pain almost made me pass out. But I had to remove the thing. It's difficult to maneuver with three feet of steel poking out of your back.

Once I had removed it, I dropped it, turned, and walked shakily back to where the chase had begun. Kelley was waiting there standing next to the body of the other dude. Cats always bring back their prey. He had a knife sticking out of his throat.

She got a look of absolute horror. I gave her a sickly grin and said, "It only hurts when I laugh."

She said peremptorily, "Strip!! I have to take care of that." I pulled off the balaclava and the tac-suit top. It was soaked in blood. Meanwhile, Kelly was fumbling in the backpack for the field dressing kit.

As her nimble fingers began to work, she said, "That's the strangest wound I've ever seen. What was it a sword?" I knew she thought she was joking.

I said humbly, "Yes dear."

She said flabbergasted, "Do you mean to tell me that he ran you through like in the movies."

I said, trying to sound pathetic, "It was a big, long one too."

Kelley finished wrapping the dressing around my chest and said, "That will hold for a while. But we'd better take care of business and get out of here."

She spent a couple of minutes meticulously planting C4 around the crypt, while I gathered the stuff we'd dropped, plus the laptops and all of the documents sitting on the table. I must have still been bleeding somewhere because my left side had become useless. I'd worry about that later. We had to get out of the place.

When Kelley finished, we crept back up the stairs and began to work our way silently past sleeping forms. Thank God for the night vision. The entire area was as quiet as it had been when we left. Was that a mere fifteen minutes earlier?

The big oak citadel doors were barred, and I only had one functioning arm now. So, Kelley had to lift the other side of the bar. We were just beginning to swing the door open when there was an explosion upstairs. That was followed by three loud booms in succession. Somebody had tripped the claymores.

The people around us were jumping to their feet confused. We hastily exited, ran across a bridge over a moat and into the crisp night air. Kelley had the remote RF detonator. I nodded and she pushed it.

There was a huge muffled "WHUMP!!" and the building seemed to rise up on its foundations. Then it slowly began to implode. That was not something I'd expected. Kelley said grimly, "The best way to make the whole thing go away was to blow the columns." Like I said, my wife's the smart one.

There was nothing but dust and flying debris hovering over the hole where the building had formerly been. We could take our time walking back. Nobody from the citadel would be following us.

We couldn't just show up at a four-star in the middle of the night dressed in tac suits. It might raise suspicion. So, we had regular street clothing stashed in the Mercedes. The two of us changed next to the open back.

Kelley has no body issues. She just skinned herself out of her suit and into a pair of shorts and a University of Chicago sweatshirt. I marveled at the perfection of her naked body. I gingerly fitted a lumberjack shirt over a pair of jeans. Kelley had to stuff my left arm into the sleeve.

It was becoming clear that I needed medical attention. But we would deal with that after we'd gotten out of the area. I could endure the pain and sooner or later the locals were going to notice that a prominent landmark had disappeared.

The night clerk was the only person who saw us come back in. He probably thought we were a couple of lovebirds returning from a midnight tryst, instead of two people who had just saved the world

*****

I looked out the open French doors and across the wide, manicured lawn. The distant ocean was bright blue to the horizon. The tropic breeze was fragrant and gentle. It had been a complicated 24-hours.

If we had waltzed into a local hospital, my ghastly wound would have raised questions that we didn't want to answer. So, we had to get some place safe. I called the only person I knew who could help us. That was Chelsea.

I explained our situation and she said in her usual tightly-controlled voice, "I knew something had happened. That entire gateway disappeared. So, the physical facility has been eliminated -- correct?"

I chuckled and said, "Buried under a couple of hundred tons of medieval masonry."

Chelsea said, "And you were wounded in the process?"

I said, "I probably need a doctor. The creepy guy stuck me with a sword."

Chelsea laughed incredulously and said, "Did you say a sword? What were you doing, playing Robin Hood?"

I said meekly, "Something like that."

She said, "Let me make some arrangements and I will get back to you."

Kelley's phone buzzed a half hour later. She answered it and said, "Yes, he's lost a lot of blood. But I have a field dressing on him, and I think he's stable for a while." There was a pause and she said, "Sure, we can do that. Make it three hours." Then she hung up.

I was beginning to zone out as Kelley and Brooke helped me down to the Mercedes. They draped me propped on pillows in the rear seat. There was a short period of coming and going, while they loaded stuff in the back. Then Kelley drove off.

I lost track of time after that. There was a brief stop just before sunrise. I could tell by the conversation that the two women were dumping all of our incriminating gear into the Reschensee. Then I must have passed out.

The next thing I knew it was bright sunshine and I was looking up at an angel. She was gorgeous, in a formidable sort of way. She was leaning over me as I lay in the back seat of the Mercedes. There was something familiar about her. But I couldn't place it.

The angel said gently, "Welcome back Joey. I'm Dr. Millie Butler and we are going to move you to that aircraft over there. Can you walk?"

There were a couple of men in pilot outfits, Kelley, Brooke, and Dr. Butler. They were standing around in a cluster looking apprehensive. I cautiously stepped out of the Mercedes. The world spun. I grabbed the top of the G-4 and did a quick check of all of my internal systems. It felt like the left side of my body had fallen off. I said unsteadily, "I'll need a little help with equilibrium."

Kelley slid under my good arm and said, "That's what I'm always here for my love." The doctor added, mildly, "It's natural with so much blood loss."

The aircraft that I was guided to was a Gulfstream G650. It's the biggest of the long-range corporate jets. The stairway into the plane was a challenge. Once we got inside, they helped me to a hospital style bed in the back of the plane. It had all the gear you would associate with an ICU.

This was clearly a very pricey med-evac flight. I remember thinking, "That must have cost Chelsea a pretty penny."

The engines started and we began to taxi out. While we were doing that, the doctor hooked up the monitoring gadgets and started the bags of things hanging from the racks around the bed. I could see that one of those bags was blood. She gave me a shot through the IV drip line and things faded again.

I must have slept for hours because I awoke feeling much better. Kelley, Brooke, and the doctor were in the front of the plane talking like old friends. Kelley noticed I was awake and walked over to the bed. The doctor came over to the side with the equipment. She checked the read-outs and then smiled.

It was uncanny that somebody so beautiful would radiate such a sense of competence. Most women who looked like the doctor were at best selfish, and at worst total bitches.

She could see me wondering who she was and said without an ounce of pretense, "I'm Millie Butler, Maddie Hughes's sister - Chelsea and Billy's aunt."

THAT was why she looked so familiar. She was a taller version of her incredible sister Maddie Hughes. Maddie was a major play in DC politics. She had helped me with a couple of problems in the past. One of those involved Chelsea's brother Billy.