The Children of Eternity (37 page)

“We’ll need to leave you now,” said one of the women at his mother’s side. “We will be taking your mother to our care center where we can help her through the difficult days ahead. I think Lord Monroe will want to see you immediately.”

“Of course,” said Jerry. He leaned down to his mother, who looked up at him with weary eyes. “These women are going to take care of you. I’ll be back to see you as soon as I can.”

“OK, Jerry,” said his mother in a voice barely above a whisper.

Then his mother was taken down a tunnel to the left. For a moment Jerry just stood there.

“She’ll be fine,” assured Karl. “Those gals are the best, let me tell you. Your mother will be well again.”

“I’m sure of that,” said Jerry. “She’s strong.”

“Well, are you ready to meet our leader?” asked Karl.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” replied Jerry.

The two men headed down the right passageway. Jerry hadn’t really planned on meeting a head of state today. He prayed for the right words.

“N
O WORD YET?” ASKED
B
EDILLIA
as she gazed into the telesphere in her home.

“Nothing,” said Abaddon. “Your friend Jerry is now eleven hours late to the rendezvous point. I’m afraid that we must assume the worst. I even contacted Tim Monroe in the hopes that Jerry might try to reach his settlement, but I haven’t heard anything from him either.”

“Chris has traveled to the Hall of Records to look into Jerry’s book,” said Serena. “We should know something soon.”

“If he has fallen into Satan’s hands, we are in serious trouble,” said Abaddon. “It just might be the excuse that he uses to launch a full-scale invasion against us.”

“But that was going to happen anyway,” noted Bedillia. “What sort of defense plans have you mounted?”

“Everyone has been armed,” noted Abaddon, “and all of my children that I still control here in Hell are ready to fight.”

“How many is that?” asked Serena.

“About six million,” replied Abaddon. “There should be far more than that, but I’ve been unable to contact the rest.”

“Can’t you recall some from Earth?” asked Serena.

“I can’t do that,” replied Abaddon. “They are busy doing the Father’s work.”

“I can tell you that you aren’t in this alone,” said Bedillia. “Many of the saints intend to stand by your side. If necessary, they will gate straight into Refuge so as to fight at your side.”

“I’d not want to have their lives on my conscience,” said Abaddon. “We’re just not ready for this attack, not yet.”

“We’ll contact you again in about four hours,” said Bedillia. “Hopefully we’ll know more by then.”

Abaddon nodded and the telesphere went blank.

Bedillia looked about the room. “Where is Christopher?”

“He left a few minutes ago,” replied Serena. “He said something about having some contacts to make. He didn’t say anything more than that.”

“I’m sure he must feel terrible,” noted Bedillia. “Jerry was his best friend. To think of him maybe being in Satan’s hands is not a pleasant thought.” Bedillia shook her head. “I had the opportunity. I had Satan right there in my sights. For a moment I thought that particle beam blast had taken him out. But it didn’t.”

“It wasn’t to be,” said Serena.

“I suppose,” lamented Bedillia. “Still, it was a nice thought.”

“Yeah,” said Serena. “I’m just glad that you were there for me. You saved my life that night.”

Bedillia placed her arm around her daughter. “How about I make you some nice mint tea while we wait?”

“That sounds good,” said Serena, following her mother toward the kitchen.

The sun had already set and it was snowing again. It was going to be a long, cold night.

Christopher stepped into the grassy forest meadow to find Lilly sitting in the lotus position, her arms outstretched and her eyes closed. He quietly approached her. It had been over a year since he had last seen her. This 17-year-old young woman seemed so very beautiful, almost angelic.

“Hello, Christopher,” she said, without even opening her eyes or changing her position. “I’ve been expecting you.”

“I shouldn’t be surprised by that,” said Christopher. “Elizabeth told me that I’d find you here.”

“There’s been trouble,” continued Lilly. “Don’t worry, Jerry is safe, as is his mother, at least for the moment.”

Christopher was tempted to ask her how she knew that, but he resisted. He sat down on the grass beside her.

“We’re needed again,” continued Lilly. This time she lowered her arms and looked to Christopher. “There is another storm coming,” she continued, “and the four of us must stand in the midst of it.”

“You’re amazing,” admitted Christopher. “I suppose you know what’s been going on.”

“Yes,” confirmed Lilly. “You and Jerry have attempted to rescue his mother from her torments in Hell.” Lilly paused, then she smiled. “It doesn’t take a seer to figure that out. The two of you have been talking about it for years. You talked about it the last time I saw you.”

“I’m sorry I haven’t been around,” said Christopher.

“I understand,” said Lilly, “you’ve had a lot on your mind. It was very bold for the two of you to undertake this mission—bold and foolhardy.”

“Well, you know Jerry. Once he sets his mind on something there’s no turning him around,” said Christopher.

“Who is more foolish,” asked Lilly, “the fool or the fool who follows him?”

Christopher laughed openly. “I guess you have me on that one.”

“It’s OK, this was meant to happen,” replied Lilly.

“Hello, hello, never fear, Jonathon is here.”

The two looked up to see Jonathon walking toward them, the mists of the gate fading behind him. Both Christopher and Lilly laughed. Yep, same old Jonathon—he always did know how to make a dramatic entrance.

“We have a problem,” said Christopher.

“Jerry,” deduced Jonathon.

“You and Lilly have been in contact,” deduced Christopher.

“Lilly and I are always in contact,” replied Jonathon. “I sense her thoughts every day. I come here once in a while, but we are in communication almost all of the time.”

Christopher looked to Lilly. “That’s got to be annoying,” he said, almost under his breath.

“Your attitude is noted,” replied Jonathon, whose smile told him that he had taken no offense. “But seriously, Lilly knows a lot about what is going on in Monrovia, and some of it is rather disturbing. I think you’ll need to hear her out.”

“I’m listening,” said Christopher.

“It’s about Tim Monroe,” began Lilly. “He has created his own little empire in Hell, and he is getting support from right here in Heaven.”

“Yes, I know,” confirmed Christopher. “Dr. Kepler and his team support the efforts of Abaddon in Refuge, and he in turn supports Tim Monroe. For all I know there is probably direct dialog between Dr. Kepler’s team and Tim Monroe.”

“There is,” confirmed Lilly, “but that’s not the support I am speaking of. There are other parties here in Heaven supporting Monroe. It all started not too long after the War in Heaven. Many people here in Heaven sought to know all that they could know. They sought the restoration of all of their memories of Earth, even those of lost loved ones.

“As you know, some of these people went to Dr. Kepler and his team, pleading with them to approach Abbadon regarding the rescue of their loved ones. Still, Abaddon was not free to act on their behalf. He had a treaty with Cordon, the demon leader of Hell, to uphold, and it severely limited the number of souls he could rescue from their torments. He had his own people to think about. That fragile treaty was all that stood between his people and annihilation. When that failed, these saints sought other avenues of rescue for their loved ones. It was then that they found out about Tim Monroe.”

Christopher was stunned by this revelation. “Yeah, but how would they have contacted him? The only way they could have done it was by angelic courier or telesphere. I think angels are currently banned from making the trip to Hell, and telesphere technology has been shared with only a few people here in Heaven. It has remained a carefully guarded secret.”

“How are any carefully guarded secrets obtained? Industrial espionage,” replied Jonathon. “All it would take was one disgruntled member of Kepler’s or Faraday’s science or engineering team to leak the information to parties unknown. Perhaps this person had a loved one suffering in Hell whom they wanted to rescue, but they knew that Abaddon’s hands were tied.”

“Who tied Abaddon’s hands?” asked Christopher.

Jonathon just shook his head. “Some things never change.”

“He means that the treaty didn’t allow Abaddon the latitude to act in a timely manner,” said Lilly.

“Oh,” replied Christopher, “you could have said that in the first place.”

“Tim Monroe had a telesphere,” continued Lilly. “It was given to him by Abaddon. As to how a citizen of Heaven could obtain a telesphere, it wasn’t necessarily an act of espionage. Keep in mind that there are no secrets in Heaven. All one would have to do was go to the Great Hall of Records and look into the book of Nikola Tesla or Johannes Kepler. Eventually you could piece together how to build any of their mechanical creations, assuming that you have advanced knowledge in building such things.”

“There are plenty of people in Heaven who do,” interjected Jonathon.

“I don’t know how it happened, and it really isn’t important,” continued Lilly. “The point is, someone managed to do it. They contacted Tim Monroe and appealed to him to rescue their loved ones.”

“Yeah, but what could they possibly offer him?” objected Christopher. “From what I’ve read about Monroe, he wasn’t likely to do it out of the goodness of his heart.”

“He didn’t,” confirmed Lilly. “They gave him what he wanted—weapons and technology. He in turn rescued their loved ones. He must have a teleportation ring. How he got it, I cannot say. But I can tell you that he has rescued many—perhaps thousands. Each one he rescues adds one more soldier to his own army. At this point, I believe that he would welcome a war with Satan’s forces. He is confident of victory. In his mind, it would bring him all the more power. People have called him ‘the Alexander the Great of Hell,’ and he views himself as such—and the comparison is accurate. His goal is to become the sole master of Hell.”

“Well, he’s got to be preferable to the current one,” noted Christopher.

“I’m not so sure,” said Jonathon, “but we could always hope.”

“But how could he defeat Satan?” objected Christopher. “It’s a nice dream, but he has to be outnumbered thousands to one.”

“He has a reason for his confidence,” said Lilly. “What it is, I cannot say.”

“But you don’t know who is supporting him?” asked Christopher.

“No, I don’t,” said Lilly.

Christopher turned to Jonathon.

“I don’t know either,” admitted Jonathon, “but I suspect that we could find out, eventually. A logical and systematic search of selected books of the Hall of Records could give us the information we need.”

“That would take too long,” objected Lilly. “We have less time than you think.”

“But regarding Jerry, you have concerns about his being there,” said Christopher.

“Yes,” confirmed Lilly. “Tim Monroe is rapidly growing drunk with power. There are things that he wants from Jerry. I doubt that he will allow him to leave until he has them.”

“Like the dagger,” deduced Christopher.

“For one thing,” said Lilly. “From my understanding, few people know that craft better than Jerry. Then there is his ability in matter manipulation. I doubt that they have anyone in Monrovia with that level of mastery. Given time, he could probably build more daggers for Monroe.”

“Big trouble in River City,” said Jonathon.

Christopher had to think about that one for a moment. He got the meaning. “So we need to rescue him.”

“No,” said Lilly, “at least not yet.”

Christopher was puzzled. “So what is there that we can do?”

“For now, nothing,” said Lilly. “It isn’t time. But the time is coming when we must stand with him.”