The Children of Eternity (34 page)

“There is a place there not unlike Refuge. It has come to be called Monrovia, after its founder, Tim Monroe. Apparently he fought a battle against his demon tormentors and won with the help of tiny flying creatures called Abaddon’s children. Despite their size, in great numbers they are very dangerous—and very powerful allies. I suppose you could call them scorpions with wings. Right now, Earth is infested with them too.”

“They sound disgusting,” said Leona.

“I’ve never seen one,” admitted Jerry, “but apparently they aren’t as repulsive as you might think. They are highly intelligent, and I’ve heard that they can see into a person’s soul and discern whether what is there is good or evil. Those determined to be evil are likely to be attacked. It is said that there are ten million of these creatures under Tim Monroe’s command. The demons have made peace with him. I think they’re a little afraid of him. He has been called ‘the Alexander the Great of Hell.’”

“How wonderful,” said Leona. “Do you think he can be trusted?”

“My friend Bedillia Farnsworth thinks so, but I’m not so sure. Still, he is our best option. From Monrovia we can get you to Refuge. Apparently, Tim Monroe and Abaddon are willing to work together and they do,” said Jerry.

Jerry made a few entries into the computer. An image of a desert scene was displayed on a monitor in front of Leona. He continued, “But this is what interests me: it’s a cave, a very large one. The Valley of Noak is loaded with them. I think I could maneuver the dagger into this one and out of sight. It would give me an opportunity to make repairs…” Jerry hesitated. “The problem though…it’s a good twelve miles over rugged terrain from this cave to Monrovia.”

“I can do that,” said Leona, “I have to.”

Jerry hesitated. “Mom, it’s not that simple. I’ve been sort of hesitant to tell you, but you’re likely to get pretty sick and soon. It’s all part of the recovery process. I told you a little about it before, but I didn’t tell you just how sick you’re likely to get. It could get real bad.”

Jerry told his mother about the withdrawal symptoms that she would soon experience, symptoms that included delirium and terrible hallucinations.

“Then I guess we’ll have to hurry, won’t we?” said Leona, determination in her voice. “I won’t be a burden on you. I’ll make it there somehow.”

Jerry nodded. Now he knew where his dogged determination came from. He could only hope that her determination would see her through.

The flight continued. Jerry remained ever alert in the event of trouble, yet trouble didn’t materialize. This dagger he called
Hope
lived up to her name. She was flying well now, and the port engine continued to perform faithfully. It gave him quality time with his mother. From her book, he had learned a lot about her. Now she was learning about him. He told her of his life in Heaven, how he grew up in the forest by the stream and about the family that had adopted him. He spoke of the War in Heaven, his three closest friends, and of the present situation on Earth.

“I wish I could tell you more about that world,” said Leona. “The problem is, my world ended where those spikes and the inside of that metal shell began. Once in a while I could hear the rain falling on it and hear the thunder rumbling. I had no way of knowing that it was sulfuric acid and not water.”

“How did you survive it with your sanity intact?” asked Jerry, but then he continued. “Mom, I know that’s probably a very personal question. When I looked in on you from the Great Hall of Records, I sometimes heard you praying. But you had your bad times too. I was so afraid that when I finally opened that sarcophagus that it would be…well, too late…that you would be out of your mind after so many years of pain and horror.”

There was a moment of silence. Jerry was afraid that he might just have said the wrong thing.

“At first I was totally terrified,” said Leona. “I mean, imagine going through all of that. I think those two spikes going through my eyes was the most horrible thing. I tried to turn my head just a little bit so that they would miss, but I couldn’t. Feeling that one spike drive into my heart was the other thing. Every time I moved, I could feel those spikes in me. I was sure that I was going to die, but I didn’t. I went wild. I would scream for hours, but when it was all over I was still there; it hadn’t done any good.

“I’d wiggle around in those chains. I’d try to free my hands. But nothing worked, it just made the pain worse. After a while I sort of gave up. Once in a while a kind of madness would overcome me and I’d bounce around for a time, but like I said, that didn’t do any good. Then I began to focus on something God had said at my judgment. Maybe I was reading more into it than I should have. I became convinced that in time I’d be rescued. I became convinced that it was you who would rescue me.”

“It looks like you were right,” said Jerry, scanning the ship’s display. “And that’s what kept you going?”

“Yes,” replied Leona. “I learned that I didn’t need to breathe. My body insisted that I did, but I didn’t. Breathing only made the pain worse. It pushed the spikes into and out of my lungs. If I remained totally still, the pain faded. I could even sleep for a few minutes at a time. But I would slump just a little bit and the pain would wake me up. It just went on and on. It was always the same. Just another day, just one more. But I was beginning to lose faith.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” said Jerry, starting to pull back on the power. “We have a hundred twenty miles to go. I’m going to start taking us on down. I figure we’ll be landing in about half an hour.”

The dagger
Hope
slowly descended toward the rugged landscape. All the while, Jerry kept his eyes on the radar for any sign of demons. Here and there he picked up a fleeting signature close to the ground. It gave him reason for concern. He knew that he was not leaving any sort of vapor trail behind, but his ship was visible. Not so much from this altitude—but once he got to lower altitudes that would change.

His attention was drawn to a dust storm not far ahead. It didn’t look like it would seriously impact his landing, but it might help obscure his approach. He turned his attention again to the cloaking device. He tried to run a diagnostics test. Jerry was surprised when the diagnostics program actually ran. Perhaps some of the circuitry had simply been knocked off line temporarily. After a minute, the diagnostics results were displayed before him.

“The power coupling,” said Jerry.

“What did you say?” asked Leona.

“I think I can bring the cloaking device back on line,” said Jerry, “the thing that makes the ship almost invisible. All I need to do is transfer power from another compatible power coupling.” For a moment, Jerry seemed deep in thought. “The high frequency radar and the navigation system power couplings are the same. I just have to reroute power from one of them.”

“I don’t think I understand,” admitted Leona, “but wouldn’t you lose one of them if you did?”

“Yeah,” said Jerry, “but I won’t need the radar, not really. Once I land I can materialize a replacement coupling.”

“Like you did the shoes,” deduced Leona.

“Right,” confirmed Jerry.

They were passing through 20,000 feet when Jerry rerouted the power. His radar screen went blank as the ship’s cloaking device went active. At least the instruments indicated that it was active. He hoped that the readings were reliable.

The sky around them gradually transformed from deep blue to light blue to the dusty salmon color as the ship passed 5,000 feet altitude. Jerry added half flaps and slowed their speed and descent. He reached into his pack and pulled from it a device that had the appearance of an old-style flip phone. He opened it.

“You have a cell phone?” asked Leona. “I mean, do people use cell phones in Heaven?”

Jerry looked back in puzzlement. “What’s a cell phone?”

“That thing in your hand.”

“Oh, it’s a communicator,” said Jerry, extending its small antenna. “The people of Refuge use these things to stay in contact with each other at a distance. We use them too at our research facility. They have a range of about eighty miles. I was hoping that the officials in Monrovia could also use them. We should be within range now.”

“A cell phone,” said Leona.

“If you say so,” said Jerry, bringing the phone to his lips. “This is Jerry Anderson on one twenty-two point four calling any station, come in.”

There was no reply.

“This is Jerry Anderson, calling any station in Monrovia. I’m approaching you from the north. Please respond.”

Still nothing.

“No signal,” deduced Leona.

“I guess not,” said Jerry. “We should be in range. Maybe no one is listening.”

“I guess not,” replied Leona.

“The cave is in a sort of narrow canyon,” said Jerry, putting the communicator in his flight suit. “I’ll do a flyover or two to get the lay of the land, and then I’ll try to land. Get ready.”

“I know,” confirmed Leona, “seat backs and tray tables in the full upright and locked position.”

“What tray tables?” asked Jerry.

His mother smiled slightly. “Never mind, dear, it’s an Earth thing.”

Jerry kept his full attention on the skies around him, looking out for any demons, as his altitude dropped. He identified the target and pulled back on the power. He knew that he’d need to be careful; this dagger would have less than half of its climbing power if he had to pull up suddenly. He placed the
Hope
on a course right down the center of the valley about 500 feet above the valley floor. He pulled back his speed to 180 miles an hour and added full flaps.

The mountains on either side of the Valley of Noak rose about 2,000 feet above the valley itself and now towered above him, while the valley itself was about three miles wide at this point. The canyon in which the cave was found was a side canyon on the steep southern slopes of the wide Valley of Noak. At its mouth it was about 300 yards wide, but it became ever narrower farther south. The cave was located on the shadowy east face of the canyon about a mile up, while the canyon itself dead-ended in a sheer 500 foot rock face only a mile above that. Adding to that the almost certainly unpredictable canyon air currents, the landing was a perfect example of threading the needle. This was not going to be easy.

“Mom, look for the cave. It’s going to be on your left once we enter the canyon. I’m going to be pretty busy just flying this thing.”

“OK,” said Leona.

Jerry swung the
Hope
hard to the south and lined up with the canyon. “I’ll take us in just above the canyon rim. See what the canyon floor looks like, whether it’s rocky or smooth.”

“Right,” confirmed Leona.

The
Hope
entered the narrow canyon right at rim height. Jerry’s heart was pounding as he maneuvered through this narrow passage. He dropped a bit lower to afford his mother a better look.

“I see it!” exclaimed Leona. “Wow, is that cave big!”

The
Hope
navigated around a slight turn in the canyon. The end of the canyon almost immediately loomed before them. Jerry added power and pulled back on the yoke. They hurtled over the rim with all too little space to spare.

“What did the canyon floor look like around the cave?” asked Jerry.

“There were some rocks along the edges,” said Leona, “but it was mostly sand, I’m sure of it. But that cave was so big. I never saw a bigger cave. I’m sure you could fit this jet in there.”

Jerry pondered the situation once more. He was swinging the
Hope
back around toward the valley. He’d gone over this in his mind a half a dozen times on the flight here. He would have to keep both engines running on the port ignition system by doing another crosswire, but it would be an awful strain on the hardware. If the unit failed, he’d lose both engines in a really bad place. But he really didn’t have a choice on this one, did he? This was the only way to do it.

He really didn’t want to fly through this narrow canyon again unless he was going to land. He’d have to cross the circuits just before he entered the canyon. He’d have to trust his mother’s evaluation of the site. If the landing zone was too rough and he had to execute a go-around, he wasn’t all that sure he’d be able to pull out before he reached the end of the canyon, in which case…scratch one dagger.

“OK, this is likely to get a bit rough,” said Jerry. “Mom, make sure you’re braced for a crash.”

“You’re not going to crash,” said Leona. “You’ve got to think positively. You’ve done wonderful things with your life. This is just going to be one more. This is going to be a great landing. I have faith in you, my son.”

Jerry swung the
Hope
around and lined up on the canyon once more—only this time he was coming in right on the deck. He instructed the computer to initiate the cross just before they entered the canyon. Again he got a warning message, actually two of them. He overrode the safety protocol. This had worked the last time. It only had to work one more time.

“Full flaps, gear down,” said Jerry, as the canyon seemed to hurtle toward him. He remembered that day almost four years ago when he told Professor Faraday that he would be the best pilot in the program. Well, here was his chance to prove it.

He pulled the power back as he brought the nose up in an attempt to bleed off a little more speed. This was it; there was no turning back now.