CHAPTER 95
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O’Connor was crouched over his duffel bag, behind a ludicrously sizable SUV. He was in the main garage of Razmik’s stupidly large house. O’Connor’s hands moved with certain swiftness as he assessed the contents of the bag.
‘Getting ready?’
The voice came from behind him. O’Connor stiffened and then relaxed as he recognized the voice as Razmik’s. The faint odor of cigarette smoke drifted to him.
O’Connor stood and lifted the bag, placing it on the flatbed of the SUV’s trunk. He half turned his head towards Razmik and said, ‘It almost always pays and almost never costs excessively to be prepared.’
Razmik stood comfortably, smoking away, as the other man continued to rummage and sort in the bag.
After a little while, O’Connor said, ‘You must be happy to be home.’
Razmik shrugged. He said, ‘It’s not really my home. It’s a tribute to the idea of Razmik. It's a landmark, a place people can point to and say that’s where the terrible Razmik lives. I don’t really have much use for it.’
‘Then why do you have it?’
‘Because a man like me is supposed to have it. If I didn’t have it, then I wouldn’t exist and someone else would rule my kingdom.’
O’Connor pondered this for a moment. He said, ‘Does that make you more or less concerned about what this is all turning into?’
Razmik puffed smoke in the air and said, ‘What do you mean?’
O’Connor said, ‘We’re off to save the world now. It's not just revenge, or putting down one murdering rapist. This is turning into something a lot bigger than that. Ardia wants to destroy The Crucible because it causes little African boys to die, not because it's connected to her mother’s killer. I’m not sure where all of this ends, but I think it’s turning into something of a quest.’
Razmik nodded, slowly. His eyes darted to the ceiling and then back to O’Connor as he considered something. He said, ‘Why should that bother you and Homer? You can always go your own way if Prowler remains your focus. You can continue to draw on my resources as much as you need to.’
O’Connor shot him a flat expression. He said, ‘I think Homer goes where Ardia goes now. His father will remain his ultimate goal, but I don’t see them separating.’
An awkward silence hung between them then.
Razmik said, ‘And how would that affect you? This can’t be how you want to spend your retirement.’
O’Connor sighed and leaned his back against the SUV. He held a hand towards Razmik and made a hurried gesture with his fingers. Razmik understood without words. He placed a cigarette in the extended hand and lit it when O’Connor brought it to his lips.
‘I went to the rainforest, originally, to stop Prowler. Razmik, I saw first hand the kinds of things that monster did. He got away from me that time, but I swore to myself that I’d do whatever it takes, if it’s the last thing I do, to stop him once and for all. Tried again in Washington, ten years ago. I failed then as well. I’m getting old, Razmik. I don’t have a lot of chances left.’
Razmik said, ‘But why do you have to do it? I thought there was a whole Order dedicated to hunting down Prowler, and the likes. Why do you have to take it all on yourself? What about those golden years?’
O’Connor met the other man’s eyes. He held them for a few seconds and seemed to be satisfied by what he saw there. He said, ‘Because I’ve got to atone, Razmik. I’ve been in the priesthood for what? Must be fifty years. I’ve spent a much bigger portion of my life in the Order, working to try and do good, than I’ve spent out of it. But the damage I did in those short few years…’
‘When you were with the IRA?’ Razmik asked, carefully. He was deeply interested in this. He said, ‘Is there a tipping point?’
‘Are you asking about me or yourself, Razmik?’ O’Connor said.
Razmik blinked and shrugged. His eyes remained fastened to O’Connor.
O’Connor said, ‘I don’t doubt that you’ve had to do some bad things. You have to trust me, you never did anything like what I did. At first, it was easy. I was fighting the good fight. I didn’t have to worry if the policeman had a wife that I was about to make a widow, or children I was about to rob a father from. The people I fought, they were the enemy. It was war. It made sense.’
‘So when did it stop making sense?’
O’Connor sighed. He cast his gaze to the floor, ‘Outside of Stryker and Werner, there might be no one left alive that knows this.’
Razmik held up his hands suddenly. He said, ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. You can imagine I have a personal interest in redemption. I have overstepped.’
O’Connor shook his head. He said, ‘No. It would be better for you to understand. Here you are, offering me access to your resources. You brought us, Homer and I, on board with you without much hesitation. You deserve to understand my motivations.’
O’Connor zipped up the duffel bag and shut the door of the SUV. He stood there, leaning with one hand against the door, and said, ‘You are familiar with how I met Patil?’
Razmik nodded, ‘In Georgia.’
O’Connor said, ‘Not very far at all from where we are about to go. Well, when I met her, I was on my way to meet with a group of rebels.’
’Soviet rebels?’
‘Yes. A group of fairly extreme thinking men that wanted to shake off the yoke of Russia. In reality, I don’t think that was what they wanted. I think, and I have a lot of experience on this topic, that a lot of the people who commit violence in the name of freedom, or religion, would have always found an excuse to do it. These men, they were of that ilk.’
O’Connor puffed quickly at the cigarette. He said, ‘But they’d paid for the assistance. They’d delivered whatever my superiors needed, and they’d sent me in exchange. I was there to teach them two things. How to shoot like I did, and how to make bombs.’
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‘You were a bomber?’
There was a crystalline sheen to O’Connor’s eyes. He shook his head, blinking hard. He said, ‘No. But there was a lot of expertise where I came up. I was shown how to do it, then I was sent to Georgia to show them. In the end, it wasn’t just to show them. I helped them build the fucking things.’
Razmik understood now. He said, slowly and carefully, ‘And they used them…’
O’Connor said, ‘Yeah… And they didn’t use them on soldiers and policemen. I saw it happen. I didn’t even need to be there. I had fulfilled my duty, showing them how. But I was seduced by them. They treated me like a revered guest. Gave me drink. Gave me women. Most of all, they shared that quality I mentioned. I was like them, Razmik. Still am. They were men who were looking for an excuse to commit violence, and so was I. So I helped them make the bombs, plant the bombs. I saw innocent people torn to pieces. Whole families. A troop of little girls…’
O’Connor’s voice choked up and he had to stop.
Razmik just watched him, contemplating him. He didn’t offer any excuses for the other man.
After a time, O’Connor gathered himself and spoke, ‘Werner took a confession from me a few weeks later. He saved me, maybe. I was, and always will, have that violence in me. Now, though, it has a focus. There can’t be anything bad about stopping Prowler. And, now that this other world, the world of Zeus and Troy, is becoming clear, it can’t be bad to stop them either. What they did to that village in Chad, that sounds like hell.’
Razmik nodded once again. Then he took a step forward, closing the distance between himself and O’Connor slightly. He put one arm on the other man’s shoulder and said, ‘I’m glad you told me that, my friend. If it’s any help, then I do believe in redemption. I have to, I guess, considering my own life story. And I think the next thing we do, destroying this Crucible, could wash a lot of that off of your soul.’
CHAPTER 96
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...Initiating Text Communication....
...Searching For Connection...
...Connection Found....
....Decrypting...
ZEUS: I have coordinates for you. I need you to move quickly. Can you arrange transport?
HERCULES: Yes.
ZEUS: When can you get moving?
HERCULES: Immediately. Give me a moment to inspect the coordinates.
HERCULES: ...
HERCULES: I can be there in a few hours.
ZEUS: Good. So can I.
HERCULES: You’re leaving The Nest?
ZEUS: I have to, this is a very rare and important opportunity.
HERCULES: I don’t think this is safe. We can’t risk you. Of anyone, you can’t be exposed.
ZEUS: This will be worth it.
HERCULES: Can’t I? Can’t I handle it? Whatever it is, you know I can do it.
ZEUS: Not this thing. This is something I have to do myself. I’m going to meet you at those coordinates. Bring whoever you have with you, I will bring some help as well. There’s nothing to discuss here. This is an imperative. I must go.
HERCULES: If you’re absolutely sure.
ZEUS: I am.
HERCULES: Then please, wait for me to arrive first. At least allow me to make sure that the site is secure.
ZEUS: Very well.
HERCULES: Thank you. And, one more thing.
ZEUS: Yes?
HERCULES: Please be careful, father.
….Connection Terminated….
CHAPTER 97
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Father O’Connor brought the SUV to a gentle stop at Slayer’s command.
The SUV was a comic sight from the interior. O’Connor and Slayer sat comfortably in the front seat. In the rear seats, Ardia seemed to be compressed slightly, but not nearly so much as the other passenger. Homer was stooped over and looked awkwardly miserable. Even the massive vehicle could not adequately contain him.
‘Up there’, said Slayer, pointing to the face of the mountain. The SUV stood at the end of a dirt road that had been almost completely reclaimed by nature. In years gone by, this road may have been busy with traffic going to and from the facility. By this time, the road had largely eroded and was heartily colonized by sizable trees. The SUV had been the correct choice of vehicle to bring.
Ardia looked at the sheer rock face and said, ‘Wow. Maybe I was wrong. That is like a brick wall. No-one can climb that.’
Homer said, ‘I can climb that. I can climb anything. So can you.’
Ardia looked at him. She said, ‘I’m really not sure.’
Homer did something then that shocked her a little bit. He took her hand in his. He looked into her eyes. He said, ‘You can climb it. I will help you. If you fall, I will catch you.’
Her breath caught for a moment as he said this, as he looked at her. Her mind flashed back to the thoughts that Metis had ripped from her head when they had battled the soldiers. She considered what those thoughts had contained, what they had implied. She also realized, for the first time, that others, Homer included, may have received those thoughts. Hadn’t she seen Abraham stiffen as though something had reached him? Despite herself, she felt her cheeks redden.
‘Whatever you’re doing, you’d best do it. The daylight is only going to be so good for so long,’ Slayer said from the front seat.
They disembarked from the vehicle and moved around to the back seat. There they produced the items that Ardia and Homer would carry with them on their climb up the mountain.
Slayer produced two cylindrical canisters. He said, ‘This is something special. They’re my own homemade thermite grenades. Dump The Crucible into any kind of container, something strong and metal ideally, pull the pins of these and dump them in. If The Crucible is too big for a container, or for these grenades, then you may need to come back down so that we can rethink things.’
Ardia hefted one of the devices. It was about the size of a very large can of deodorant. She said, ‘Is it safe?’
‘Extremely,’ Slayer said. ‘Until, that is, you pull the pin. Then it’s going to burn at thousands of degrees celsius.’
‘How did you know how to make these?’ said O’Connor, holding the other one.
‘Through a lot of research. I long planned to go up there. I even tried a couple of times. But that climb, it’s not possible for a normal person. I’m not even sure how pro-mountain climbers would manage. The rock face there isn’t just flat, there’s a gradual overhang. Part of the mountain collapsed, decades ago, to produce that surface. That’s why the lower access is blocked.’
‘And the tunnels run right through the mountain?’ asked Ardia.
Slayer said, ‘We think so. Everything I’ve gathered, on my own and from Metis, suggests that there’s a significant network of rooms in there.’
Ardia gazed at the mountain and wondered. She said, ‘In my mother’s diary, she says that she almost never saw the outside. That windows were rare.’
O’Connor said, ‘I’ve been thinking the same thing. We know she was raised in some kind of facility, some kind of lab. I met your mother not that far from here. It is very possible, likely even, that this is the place where she escaped from.’
‘Where they made the Golem,’ said Homer.
Ardia suddenly said, ‘I wish Stryker could have come.’
‘We’ll be okay,’ said Homer.
‘I know,’ she said. ‘But this would have excited him.’
Slayer said, ‘I barely managed the drive here with my busted arm. Even Stryker couldn’t climb up there the way he’s all messed up.’
Ardia suddenly realized that the three men with her were not hers. Abraham had stayed behind, because of his injuries. Razmik had decided he had business to attend to, as he was now at home. Here she was with three men that she had not started this exploit with. And she felt almost as comfortable with them as she would have with her own people. Even Slayer, who was the newest by far, had become a comfortable companion.
‘So….’ said Ardia, looking up the steep face with a look of distinct trepidation on her face. ‘What’s next?’
Homer looked down at her and said, ‘Now we climb.’