Angel of Doom (27 page)

Charun chuckled and then gave Grant a tap on the shoulder. “Now I know why you and my hammer coalesced so well. You think much like me.”

Grant shrugged and smirked. “The best things in life are simple.”

“You are as wise as you are brave,” Charun exclaimed. “Honey?”

“Yes, we heard. Even using his inside voice, Grant is not so quiet, either,” Vanth replied.

The annoyance in her voice was not harsh, even gentle. As if she was having fun. Kane had been there many times before with Brigid in their conversations and interactions.

And there was that familiarity again, that mirror image between Charun and Vanth and Kane and Brigid. Over the course of his adventures, Kane had seen glimpses that his life was not confined to the body he currently inhabited, but rather he was a stream of energy, a thread of life entwining multiple people, from far back into prehistory and stretching to a distant future.

Kane wanted to ask Brigid if a psychopomp could pick up and pattern such things as souls.

And there was still the fact that Vanth's song had been in Brigid's head. Was it just her song or was it the demigod herself? Brigid had made very certain to hypnotize CAT Alpha and CAT Beta. Were their perceptions influenced by whatever remained inside Brigid's brain?

Kane had been stuck like this once before, with Neekra having allegedly torn him out of his own mind and stranding him in a comatose state. Time in the illusion passed quickly, so that he perceived the turning of centuries even though he was only out for the space of a day and some change. Maybe Brigid
thought
that she had been shielding the members of the teams against the psychic interference of Vanth and Charun, but in truth, she'd laid them bare and vulnerable.

Or almost all of them were rendered helpless.

Kane's posthypnotic suggestions were removed, his mind and willpower being too strong for such manipulation, rebelling at the command to forget and dispel his curiosity and thoughts. Had his own subconscious found a way to buck the system, to dispel whatever influence
Brigid had placed upon him? After all, the posthypnotic suggestions were conceived as a means of preventing their minds from betraying them by actually acknowledging their suspicions and prejudices.

The ways of the subconscious mind were such that Kane could have known exactly the kind of danger Brigid had been putting him into with her hypnosis, and then could have made enough of a fuss to get him to negate that conditioning. Of course, this now meant that Kane was alone, the rest of his allies against him.

Or would that actually be what Vanth and Charun
wanted
him to believe? The whole situation with these entities and their telepathic powers was one that could leave Kane doubting everything, even if he was seeing something right in front of his eyes. Traveling down one line of possibilities or another was something that could bring Kane to the edge of madness.

As he was trying to determine which end was up, he and Grant had entered the chamber where Charun said that the best of his “toys” were located. Kane wanted to call it a hangar, but there was no real exit to the outside skies. Here, he saw the Manta that Edwards had lost, as well as the three Olympian Spartan suits in stalls specifically designed for them. There were other stalls along the wall of the same nature, including two with robotic shapes hidden beneath tarps.

“You have your own Gear Skeletons?” Kane asked.

Charun nodded. “Yes. We kept them around and actually repainted ours to match those of New Olympus.”

“To infiltrate?” Grant questioned.

“To keep our robots from being chopped to pieces. In fact, those were the suits that were transporting Edwards's Manta to and from the hillside,” Charun said. “This is a courtesy as we did not want to create wear and tear upon the Olympian amputee pilots and their mecha.”

Kane blinked in surprise. “No wear and tear on the pilots or the robots.”

“The calculation process is not one that endangers those involved, so long as we have the staff to keep them fed, watered and cleaned,” Charun explained.

Grant strolled along, looking over the Olympian suits, then lifted the tarp covering the two duplicates that had been utilized. Kane jogged up beside his friend, peeking behind the curtain. Charun strode over and pulled down the tarp.

“There are similarities in the basic construction, but we had to improvise some panels on ours to match the armored cockpits of your friends,” Charun said. The front hatches to each of these armor units were open, and Kane could see the empty cockpits. He noticed that their torsos were larger.

“These weren't built for trans-adapts,” Kane said. “Nor whatever midgets that piloted the original skeletons of the Olympians.”

“No. These do not have the cybernetic interface nodule that can plug into a spine, either,” Charun told them. “Rather, take a look at the headrest of the chair.”

Kane squinted and noticed a small crown with stones, possessing the smoothness of river stones and the translucence of gems or quartz crystal. These were a familiar sight, his having noted similar artifacts in the Annunaki skimmers.

“The gems form a matrix around a sentient mind and respond to its commands,” Charun explained. “Given your experience with our cousins…”

“The Annunaki. You admit to being related to them?” Kane asked.

Charun nodded. “Though we are not from the same world as they. In fact, you can say that the Annunaki are
our
twisted mirror images in
this
dimension. Thus our distaste.”

“So you truly are from another universe,” Grant mused. “We've experienced other casements, as well. Some of those realities echoed our own…some were vastly different.”

“We haven't accessed those in a long time, though we're aware of other dimensions and pocket universes,” Kane added. “One thing I want to know was that we brought our interphaser but you aren't interested in using it.”

“If anything, your technology is not as ours,” Charun told them. “Your device can be used to help open an aperture, but we
have
the means of opening that dimensional floodgate back to Styx. We just need the code to open it. And the interphaser won't do that for us. But you should thank Brigid for me. It was thoughtful of you.”

“Thanks. I'll tell her,” Kane returned. “Though, wouldn't Vanth be the one saying that, as they're both talking and touring side by side?”

“The truth be told, I'm not certain if Vanth's recall extends to matters of conversational courtesy,” Charun said. “As you can tell, most men end up going stupid around her, and that tends to make women hate her. Fortunately you're among the rare of the apes that does not allow their hormones to distract them from the important things.”

“Trust me,” Grant interjected. “Kane tends to get plenty of distraction.”

Kane rolled his eyes, pretending to maintain interest in the tour, the discussions going on between Grant and Charun.

All the while, he returned to his mind, trying to inventory itself, looking for signs of interference, of sabotage.

He recalled Brigid Baptiste's co-option, her hijacking by Ullikummis to become his godly prophet, his right hand as the villainous Brigid Haight. Though she had been under his control, there had still been a Brigid Baptiste inside
Haight's head, locked into a mental version of a safe room to keep her true identity while allowing the son of Enlil to believe he was in command. When the time was right, Brigid restored herself to her original personality, successfully throwing off the fetters of Ullikummis and foiling his plans to wrest the Earth from his father and the humans he battled with.

Had Brigid given Kane an outside bit of suspicion, the doubt that Brigid was entirely herself when she worked to inure the rest of the Cerberus teams against Vanth's psychic song?

A shadow flickered in the corner of Kane's eye and it took everything in his will not to suddenly react to the new presence. There was a physical manifestation at his shoulder and he caught a glimpse of red-gold curls spilling across his peripheral vision.

“The word to break the conditioning of the others is
anam-chara
,” Brigid's voice whispered in his ear. “I was erroneous in the belief that I'd dispelled the song of domination completely from my consciousness.”

Kane nodded grimly to himself. Since this manifestation of Brigid was one solely perceptible to his consciousness, he didn't speak aloud. Was this why I started wondering if those two and their relationship was so close to ours? Because Charun calls Vanth his bride and you and I…?

“We are different. Something closer than they are, but I needed you to think of that term, I planted the crumb for you to break loose,” Brigid said.

And just what am I supposed to do now? Kane looked around the arsenal. It was vaguely interesting, but the truth of the matter was, they were in an enemy fortress. This far down into the pyramid, his Commtact wouldn't pick up a signal. And am I supposed to break you out of your hypnosis?

“I can handle myself,” the Brigid message told him. “But I told Domi and the others to hole up in a safe room. You should be able to pick them up as they have their Commtacts on passive.”

Kane looked sideways at Charun and Grant. The two men were still conversing. He was free now, and his doubts were dispelled like smoke. Is Charun in this with Vanth, or is she conning him?

Brigid stepped in front of him, frowning. “Charun is the brains of this operation.”

The demigod looked at Kane directly, his eyes aflame from within.

“Vanth is a willing accomplice, but it's Charun who is the wielder of the song and who has the telepathic capabilities,” Brigid warned.

Kane frowned as Charun's tusks snagged his upper lip in a sneering, smug smile.

More movement sounded behind him, bare feet slapping the stone floor of the arsenal. Grant turned, dazed and confused at the arrival of the newcomers. Kane realized that trouble had arrived in the form of the Etruscan demigod's reinforcements. He clicked his Commtact to broadcast, all frequencies, knowing he'd need all the help he could get. Things were going to turn violent at any moment.

“Anam-chara,”
Kane uttered, but not before Charun snatched the jaw plate off his partner Grant.

“Oh, no… Kane has fallen under the control of Vanth, Grant,” Charun stated, his voice stentorian, to the point where the Cerberus adventurer could feel the impact of each syllable. “You have to subdue him before he turns against us, Grant.”

The big former Magistrate's eyes grew milky, watching as Charun staggered backward.

“Kane?” Grant asked. “Kane! Snap out of it! Don't shoot him! Kane!”

Suddenly, in the middle of the arsenal of Charun, Kane was confronted by the one weapon he could not destroy. His friend, his brother by blood, sweat and tears. And Grant lunged forward, the glaze of his eyes telling Kane that Grant felt he was completely out of control.

He wanted to speak another word, but a sudden grasp seized his throat. And Charun, sitting against the wall, grinned, his eyes twinkling as he denied Kane the means of breaking this spell.

Grant's fist hammered deep into Kane's stomach, and despite the non-Newtonian polymers stiffening to lessen the blow, all the breath was expelled from Kane's lungs.

Domi and the others heard the voice of Kane over their Commtacts, meaning that he must have been close; otherwise the walls of intervening stone would have made reception impossible. His words were familiar, the affectionate term that he and Brigid Baptiste held for each other.

Anam-chara.
It was a term from Celtic spiritual tradition, and was a belief that the human soul radiated all around the physical form in an aura. When two people came near each other, there were instances where that aura opened and channels of trust and understanding immediately opened between the two individuals. When that occurred, the Celtic tradition stated that one had found their soul friend, or in the ancient tongue of the Celts, the
anam-chara
. Though Domi doubted that kind of deep, almost symbiotic bond from the beginning, there was no doubt that each completed the other.

She'd also noticed part of that between Kane and Grant, as well, which was probably what Lakesh saw when he mentioned the confluence of personalities that always lead CAT Alpha to victory against imposing odds. However, between Kane and Brigid, this was what seemed strongest.

Domi, however, realized that she was inside a pyramid that Charun and Vanth
allowed
CAT Beta to infiltrate. The two demigods had drawn from Brigid the plans of both teams to deal with the Etruscan entities. However,
Charun and Vanth had not counted on the mental resilience of the flame-haired archivist. She'd hypnotized the group to the holes that they had funneled the Cerberus Away Teams toward, but there were other measures that Brigid had implanted in them. Rather than continuing to wander around the pyramid, allowing the minions of the demigods to entrap them, Brigid had arranged for them to seek out a truly defensible position.

This storage room was such a place. The door was sturdy enough to withstand attack, yet too small to allow one of the robotic warriors to reach very far into. The walls were simply too thick for even a skeleton of secondary orichalcum to sunder, and the chamber was deep enough to be out of range of a grasping claw. There were thick, durable crates that the four people had assembled into a barricade instinctively.

Fists pounded at the door and the CAT Beta members moved behind their assembled cover. Shelving units were stocked with weapons and ammunition, as well, providing Domi and her allies with the means to hold out against a prolonged siege.

Of course, all of those factors protecting the CAT meant that they couldn't rush to Kane's aid. Over their Commtacts, the four allies heard their friend grunting as he engaged in a melee.