Part 40 (1/2)

”That's a very dangerous place,” Carlos said quietly. ”You might stand a better chance underground.”

Damali stared at him until he lifted his gaze. ”I know that place brings back white knuckles for you, but I've gotchure back out there.”

He stared at her. The team pa.s.sed nervous glances. ”You don't want to face him out there.”

”We did the chamber and have been to every dark Level, except Seven,” she said calmly, holding the line. ”We can do the woods topside.”

Carlos shook his head. ”This ain't like before.”

”Why not?” Damali asked, her voice calm but firm as she covered Carlos's hand with her own. ”We'll smoke the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, trust me. Just tell me what he looks like?”

Carlos's eyes darkened until tiny slivers of silver could be seen within them. ”That's just the problem. He looks like me.”

The military cargo plane had to touch down in LAX because of size, but the team didn't care if it landed on an accident-blocked highway, just as long as it wasn't in the air. Several hours from Lhasa, after a brief refueling stop in Manila, twenty-some hours in flight, and almost forty-eight hours with no sleep, the team was nearly ill from inhaling fumes. Pure adrenaline kept them from pa.s.sing out as they flew from day into night, thirteen hours behind where they'd been, as though flying back in time.

But the moment the aircraft circled the area and started its descent under a sky lit by a full moon, they all pressed their noses to the windows. Billowing black smoke raged from tall buildings. Unmoving fire trucks flashed red lights, and sat abandoned. Cars were smashed and twisted around poles or crunched upon each other. Bodies lay strewn in piles, littering the streets like tiny specs of paper. Damali covered her mouth, unable to fathom mobs of people moving in ma.s.ses like frightened herds of sheep, a large glob of humanity running one way and then s.h.i.+fting in another direction as something unseen chased them.

”The airport, like the city, is under martial law,” General McHenry said over the intercom. ”The moment we touch down, we'll cover your team and you head for the Black Hawks.”

”Roger,” Rider whispered as they got closer to the ground.

The team stared in shock as large were-demons materialized, and they saw what the crowds were running from. Huge beasts stood atop piles of bodies, feasting, lifting their ugly heads occasionally to snarl at each other as they fed. Black shadows darted in and out of bodies, turning frightened civilians on each other in sudden, random acts of violence.

Carlos closed his eyes and lowered his head as he saw a woman fleeing with her baby suddenly drop the flailing infant and stomp it.

”Oh, Jesus,” Marlene said, cringing and jerking her sight away from the window. She began rocking. ”Now, if ever before, this is a good time for the Twenty-third.”

”The Covenant should be here,” Big Mike said quietly, wiping his eyes.

”They're where they should be,” Damali whispered. ”Holding the line in vigil... just like Monk Lin had to stay in Lhasa.”

”You think Mei's family made it out, if people in the town turned, or anything else came up over there?” Rider said quietly, his line of vision glued to the window as the plane touched down, bounced over bodies, and sucked several fleeing victims into the engines.

”Yeah,” Damali said, breathing hard. She stood as the plane screeched to a stop. ”We pray. We get out. We do this. Gotta stop the madness.”

Carlos stood slowly. He looked at the marines around them. ”You all are just babies, no more than eighteen. Probably never jaywalked in your lives, let alone dropped a body or disobeyed a direct order.” Carlos took the safety off his weapon and his eyes met confused, disoriented stares. ”When your generals and the pilots come out, if their eyes are black-shoot 'em.”

The marines were on their feet in seconds, their guns leveled at Carlos. But when the doors to the c.o.c.kpit blew open and black, glowing eyes stared at them, the Guardian team's sharpshooters did the honors. Rider and Shabazz opened fire in neat, calm, coordinated trigger pulls. Green gook splattered. Two young marines upchucked; all were frozen for two seconds past too late where they stood.

”Mar had you covered in here,” Damali said. ”She set a prayer barrier for all present. Those guys up front, nonbelievers. You saw for yourselves, the weapons help, but ain't your first line of defense.” She nodded at Dan, Shabazz, and Berkfield. ”Pull 'em out.”They extracted their dog tags, showing a Star of David, a crescent, and a cross.

”J.L., you got a Buddha on you?”

J.L. nodded and whipped out his dog tags.

Damali's eyes raked each enlisted man. ”It doesn't matter which faith, as long as the foundation is about the Most High, the divine. If you believe and haven't already been contaminated, you won't be possessed. If you're not possessed, you've got a fighting chance and can use the conventional weapons to fend off whatever might try to eat you. But don't hold up any of these if you've been bulls.h.i.+tting about having faith. Fangs will take your throat.” She spun and looked at Marlene. ”Before those helicopter pilots take us up, make sure those boys are straight, Mar. That's all we need is for a chopper to go down. Blowing Harpies out the air will be bad enough.”

Damali's lungs felt like they were on fire as she dashed across the runway to the waiting choppers. She took the lead, clearing the way, mowing down anything that lunged or slithered in their path. Carlos had the rear; Mike, Shabazz, and Rider kept flanks clear, while J.L., Jose, Berkfield, and Dan made body s.h.i.+elds to protect the team's newbies.

Marlene prayed faster than Damali ever saw her pray, splas.h.i.+ng young frightened foreheads with water and oil, and scattering sea salts and herbs on chopper floors, where they were crushed under steel-toed army boots.

The first chopper lifted, tilted, and swayed as something unseen adhered to its side.

”Mike, underneath!” Damali shouted, leaning out the door as the helicopter in front of them dangerously tipped.

Rider hooked his harness to a side rail, leaned out, took dead aim, and splattered a Harpie so the chopper could right itself.

Shabazz got two more headed for the blades, splattering vile demon innards on the roof and window. Mike saluted and leaned back. The second chopper went airborne as an approaching jumbo jet took a nosedive, burst into flames, and sent fuselage down the runway they'd just vacated.

The team members glanced at one another; the pilots glimpsed out the window and then never looked back.

Carlos sat immobilized. What they'd witnessed from the plane was brought to them in full sense-around-sound so close to the action in a chopper. L.A. International was lit with military machine-gun fire, sending red-and-blue streaks through the complex.

Smoke was pouring out of every building orifice, windows were smashed, gla.s.s was everywhere. If this was the airport, East L.A. was gonna bring him to tears.

His mind kept going over the same thought like a broken record: the people-and the babies, children, dear G.o.d.

Storefronts had been looted and torched. Houses reduced to rubble. Streets were impa.s.sable. They saw it all from the air.

Churches and mosques and temples were on fire-hallowed ground kept out demons, but there was more than one way to get to food... smoke it out. Carlos closed his eyes and slowly leaned back against the seat, his ears soaking in the shrill screams and mayhem as the chopper blades kept a steady beat in the smoke-darkened sky.

Every sense in him told him Damali was right. The Chairman came here to pick a fight. Right in his own backyard. Just like he'd brought the pain to the Chairman. Fair exchange was no robbery. He'd desecrated the Chairman's black hole on Level Six, now the Chairman was back to return the favor.

The most horrifying part of it all was he'd actually helped the b.a.s.t.a.r.d do it. When he'd been taken over, before the black separation within himself, he'd turned h.e.l.l out. Now it needed somewhere to live. L.A. was a perfect place. There was no such thing as homeland security. If there was bulls.h.i.+t going down, anywhere on the planet, you could run, but you couldn't hide...

taking out one cell at a. time, one level at a time, was futile.

Carlos opened his eyes as he felt the sting on his neck turn into a throb, then an ache, and then a wet stabbing pain. He looked at his bloodied hand, glanced at the trees below, and signaled to the pilots to touch down in the small clearing that began it all.

”Your neck is bleeding,” Damali shouted over the choppers.

”Douse it!” Rider hollered, his eyes frantically going from Carlos's gaping wound to Marlene.

”It's an old scar,” Carlos said. ”Just chickens coming home to roost.” He waved Marlene off and winced, and then jumped down as the Neteru tattoo heated, sizzled, and sealed the old vampire bite.

Damali jumped down behind him, motioning for the team to disembark. ”Push those choppers back, but stay near,” she yelled over the thudding whirl. ”If we have to use explosives, you're sitting ducks.” She glanced back at the team. ”Goggles, on, all equipment readied.”

The pilots nodded and lifted off, seeming too happy to oblige the request. Soon their airborne blades became distant, but the team briefly shut their eyes when a double explosion sounded overhead.

”One of 'em was just a kid,” Damali said, not looking back. She glanced at Marjorie's tear-filled eyes and sent her gaze into the darkness. ”Rest their souls in peace.”

”Ashe,” Marlene murmured and began trudging behind Damali saying the Twenty-third Psalm.

”I wish Mar had her stick,” Shabazz said in a quiet tone moving forward. ”It's been with her since forever. Now it's up in the Tibetan mountains under fifty feet of packed ice.”

”Monk Lin will get it,” Marlene said absently. ”It'll rise and come home, as always.”

Rider fingered his dog tag and then dropped it, remembering that his amulet had been given away. ”If wishes were fishes, we'd all be free.” He said quietly, no sarcasm in his tone. ”Just like we all wish D had her long blade out here.”

Carlos abruptly halted, and the group stopped forward motion behind him. All eyes except Carlos's and Damali's strained in the dark behind goggles. Ears listened intently. Jumpy nerves made muscles twitch as the slightest movement from the wind and small woodland creatures cut into their senses.