The Hypogeum Ch. 08-09

She was a little girl.

The midwife helped her free from her mother's body and cut the umbilical cord. A ripple ran from the ground beneath the hospital, spiritual rather than physical, so it went unnoticed by everybody in the vicinity. Strangely, as the ripple spread out from its epicentre, it grew stronger rather than weaker until it was like a tidal wave of mystical force travelling along the ley lines. Wider and wider grew the circle, moving outwards ever outwards. Baphomet felt the ripple moving towards him, he was both mystified and alarmed at its appearance. Carefully he reached out with his mind along the ley lines that joined his node to where the wall of energy was travelling toward him. He felt the wall approaching like it was a solid mass and he found to his dismay that he couldn't penetrate it. He could tell where it had started, but that was all.

When the energy wave hit Old Sarum, Baphomet roared, at first in anger then in agony. This new energy was forcing his consciousness away from the ley lines, he struggled and fought but it was to no avail. The energy burned him like fire burned paper; each pulse was like a white-hot hammer blow in his mind. Baphomet lost consciousness as he was torn from the network of ley energy and thrust back into the node. His prison once again an impregnable fortress. Just before he lapsed into a stupor, he heard a sound behind the fire and the pain of withdrawal from the network, it was the sound of a voice, a huge voice and it was singing. Singing a song of exultation.

Baphomet knew what the voice was.

It was the Earth; the planet was welcoming the Mother and rejecting him.

When he awoke, the demon was horrified to discover that he could no longer send his mind out along the network of ley lines to directly interfere with the thoughts of the human animals. Although he could, with an effort of will when supplied with human life force through the stone tablet in the vault above, still manifest in his physical form. Cut off from his normal means of communicating with his army of followers, he pondered on what he should do. The next time his disciples came to him with another unwilling dinner guest, he had his plans ready. First he feasted and then he told those present of the new order of things. Those present were to be his red robes. Lieutenants in his army of darkness, they were to contact their subordinates and build their own network of informants, spies and soldiers.

Once that was done, they were to start searching for the Mother. All he could tell them was the date of birt and the general area of Swindon where the ripples of energy that stripped him of much of his power came from. All present knew of the prophecy, so all had a starting point from where to begin. Baphomet also told them of his ultimate plan to stride the Earth as its ruler and what would be required.

As one, his disciples fell into shock at Baphomet's pronouncement that he required tactical nuclear strikes against Old Sarum. But still they scurried off to carry out his bidding.

And wasted several years in fruitless effort

There were too many failsafes on the machines and the guards were on the whole incorruptible. Also, the Americans and the Russians stockpiled the only weapons able to release power in the magnitude that Baphomet required. And the weapons of both countries were out of their reach.

A child was born in the Wandsworth borough of London. His Norwegian father named him Loki. As he grew, he discovered a passion for amateur electronics and computers. Sitting alone in his bedroom, he used his home computer to search TelNet, one of the precursors to what would grow into the Internet, for information he could use to his advantage.

He also made something of a name for himself at school. His signature being a small bomb made from the filling of several plastic caps used in toy guns and hidden under a toilet seat that would explode when the seat was sat upon. He also found it impossible to find a game of cards after the age of seventeen as he had a remarkable ability to win. In Loki's opinion, it was only because he was so good at it that he had never been caught cheating.

One evening he was sitting in his flat, he had been thrown out of the house on his sixteenth birthday and had lived by his wits ever since. Loki was looking at the streams of data going down his computer screen when the lines of code began to subtly change. Before his eyes the lines of programming language began to form words in clear English. He read them and then tapped in his response.

Loki vanished.

A middle-aged Adrian Walker came alone to the vault beneath Old Sarum carrying an unconscious young girl over his shoulder. He laid her down over the stone tablet and slit her throat. It was the measure of the man that he had kidnapped her earlier that evening from a local village purely for the chance of a private conversation with Baphomet.

Once summoned, the demon although irritated at being disturbed, was also impressed with the cold-blooded callousness that Walker displayed. So he listened to what Walker had to say. He spoke of the future, of the age of information. Information was power. The future lay in computers, as did the key to Baphomet's freedom. Once he had finished speaking he waited for his master's reaction. The demon nodded thoughtfully and a new scheme was set in motion.