CHAPTER 9: ATTACK
Hela, former goddess of death of the old Norse religion, heard Lucine the Messenger's cry for help for the second time and rushed to her aid immediately.
Like most agents of life and death, Hela had a knack for sussing out evildoers. Consequently, it was no problem for her to locate a transatlantic airliner now making its way to New York in which things had gone terribly wrong. She now hovered outside in the bone-cracking cold of thirty thousand feet, listening to the hijackers and watching what was going on in the passenger compartments.
Over the last few months during which the attack was being planned, the terrorists had no idea that devils in human form conspired among their numbers. These adherents cared nothing for their ideology or the destruction of infidels. Their sole goal was to snatch back the soul of Anung un Rama, who had been firmly within the camp of righteousness for many years now. The denizens of Hell had failed to kill his surrogate mother and protector; they would not allow another failure to keep Anung un Rama from becoming the true prince of Hell and the architect of the world's end.
After all, was that not his destiny?
The plan currently in execution was to hijack a transatlantic flight and crash it against the Freedom Tower, not to bring it down (because it is designed to withstand such an assault) but to use it as a distraction. With so many millions of eyes and cameras pointed at the top of the building, no one would focus on the thermonuclear device planted in the lobby.
The designers of aircraft and of building security since Nine-Eleven had been good – excellent, in fact – but their detectors and devices were far from foolproof. The terrorists had spent many years finding the weaknesses in the western system of defenses against them, and today it would all come home.
The goddess of death entered the fuselage, silent and unseen by the dozens of weeping and frantic passengers. Two people had been shot by the highjackers in order to intimidate them, just like others had on Flight 93 years before. One victim had been an old man who had died immediately. Hela detected a strong life force in the second; a man specifically targeted by the highjackers because he was the sky marshal and a trained pilot.
He was, in fact, still alive.
Hela knelt next to him and began to flood him with healing energy.
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With a sudden shocking jolt to her spine, Lucine snapped out of her blackout to find herself still in midair; cradled in the arms of a handsome man with long wavy hair tied back in a horsetail. He had a mustache and beard and a big smile; Lucine smiled back with gratitude and relief.
"Ullr, is it?" she asked. "Hela's consort and god of winter and the hunt?"
His grin increased. "At your service, Lucine the Messenger. Hela told me you were in trouble. She's up in the plane and I'm here to take you wherever you need to go."
Lucine, her body still tingling with the shock of coming to so sharply and so suddenly, looked down at New York Harbor and the lights of the city twinkling beautifully beneath them.
"Take me to One World Trade Center, if you please," she said.
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The highjackers hadn't been in the cockpit for any longer than a few minutes when Hela smoothly glided through the door. They hadn't shut off the transponders or done anything else that would tip off ground control that a highjacking had in fact occurred. They were talking rapidly between themselves, planning their next move, and did not notice the death goddess materializing behind them.
"Hello, gentlemen," she said, her half death-head face curved into a sinister smile. They turned and screamed. Within seconds, Hela snatched their souls and disappeared, just as the revived sky marshal entered to retake control of the airliner.
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Chaos reigned in lower Manhattan. Law enforcement personnel swarmed the streets, searching for terrorist activity and most particularly for the nuclear device about which Tom Manning had warned them. Hellboy and Abe were frantically trying to get to Liz and the children, which was practically impossible among the mobs of people trying to get away from the area. They were following the signal from her cell phone, and both prayed that the battery would last until they found her.
There were roadblocks everywhere. Lucine thanked Ullr when they touched down on the plaza; he nodded and quickly blended in with the crowd. Now, Lucine undertook the task of how to get herself inside. The Freedom Tower had been evacuated – a task made far easier thanks to its design features – but among the swarms of people rushing out, others were surreptitiously making their way in. Some had been hiding within the building for hours, just like the bomb they had smuggled in.
Lucine was chilled to the bone and her back hurt, but this did not stop her from marching up to a Transit Authority cop who stood in front of one of the entrances.
"Sorry, lady, you can't go in. The building is closed." His eyes widened when he spotted her wings. He had read the New York Post and seen the pictures. "Hey, aren't you that - "
Lucine stood firmly and placed her hands on her hips. "This building is open to me, guardian of the soul of Anung un Rama."
"Huh?" he said as she snapped her wings, knocking him aside and dashing into the lobby.
It had less than difficult for the terrorists to infiltrate the Freedom Tower. It was, in fact, open to the public. Disguised as busboys, clerks, fast food workers, and business people, they now got down to the business of ensuring that today's plan would be a success. They quickly joined those who had entered the building during the chaos of evacuation. Instead of security guards and beat cops, building management would have done far better with soldiers with automatic weapons. But hindsight is golden, as the sages say, and the big guns – New York's SWAT and NEST teams - had yet to arrive.
The terrorists made quick work of disposing of those who had the misfortune not to evacuate in time. Others jammed the doors shut. The terrible clatter of automatic weapons made Lucine's heart jump as she hung back around the corner, looking at the men who were now intent on murdering as many infidels as they could find.
A primal hiss of warning escaped her lips; you will pay dearly for the murder of innocents.
While all of the men before her appeared to be human, some were demons. She could see their hideous faces behind the human meat they wore. It had always been her job to smite devils and Lucine was deadly good at her job. That would have to wait, however, until reinforcements arrived. Right now she was as mortal as any of the people out on the plaza.
Suddenly, one of the demons spotted her.
Her heart thudded in dread as he suddenly pointed at her and, unbelievably, began to laugh.
"It's that angel we destroyed in Bethmoora!" he shrieked to his compatriots. "Remember me, Hag? I smashed in your bony face with the lid of a soul-jar!"
Lucine felt a pulse of rage but immediately suppressed it. Rage was wrong here and she knew it. It was self-centered and a distraction from her true work, that of protecting Elizabeth Sherman and her children. She had a sudden vision of a piece of masonry falling on the stroller and killing the little ones; another falling on Liz, snapping her spine but sparing her life so that she could just lie there and scream and scream and scream -
The last piece of the Hellboy prophecy finally slammed into Lucine's head.
Hellboy himself would come across the three battered bodies and he would lose his mind as surely as the Sun rises in the east; the demons hidden in their human guise nearby would care for him and would assuage his grief and horror with dreams of glory and power you will be the King of Hell you will be our savior and prince forever and ever all hail Anung un Rama, our leader –
The men approached her, not to kill her but to torment her. While it would be most unpleasant, it might give her enough time for law enforcement to retake the lobby.
She raised her little chin and stared them down.
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Red had called Elizabeth Sherman earlier; a frantic and terrible call that urged her to take the babies and run as far away from the Freedom Tower as she could. He had told her there was a bomb and that she must be far away when and if it detonated. He said that he was on his way but it didn't look good.
Even my fire won't help, Liz thought frantically, if fire is the problem.
A sharp wind, smelling of pestilence, whistled past Liz's startled face. The air had been heavy around her and the children and she had heard shrieks and screams as well as the endless wail of too many sirens. Close. Very close. She scooped up her babies in her arms and then had kicked off her shoes just like the women had on September 11 years ago.
She ran.
A sudden dreadful panic overcame her, freezing the breath within her body and causing her to scream out a mental prayer for protection. Death was as close to her as the very sidewalk over which she ran clumsily with her precious burdens.
OH DEAR GOD LET ME LIVE SAVE MY BABIES PLEASE DEAR JESUS GOD
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Lucine Mal'akha knew her time for waiting had expired when a sudden burst of automatic weapon fire tore through her right wing. She screamed in pain and fell. Several devils ran towards her, eager to rip her to pieces.
"Use the flamethrower on her now! She'll love that!" another demon shrieked, laughing.
Lucine closed her eyes tightly; waiting for the next blow and trying not to remember what had happened to her at her temple in Bethmoora.
They had pinned her down with their black magicks and as she lay there, poor thing with the sand sticking to her smashed and bleeding face and the shrieks of the stolen souls pleading for rescue, they had set her entire back and her lovely black wings on fire. She would never forget the smell of burning feathers and flesh – her own. Her screams of pain could be heard for miles, but there was no one to hear her. And then one of them picked up her staff and went for her eyes -
No
NO!
STOP!
With supreme effort, she pushed away the thoughts that were now weakening her, and instead prayed for help with such fervent intensity that her slight body began to glow.
No one noticed her. All were looking over as a large assembly of police officers began pounding at the lobby doors, guns at the ready.
WARN THEM NOW
Lucine pulsed a mental message into their communication devices. They heard her warning as a stern male voice with a Brooklyn accent –
GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT
REMEMBER NINE-ELEVEN
THOSE COPS ALL DIED GET OUT
GET OUT NOW OR YOU WILL DIE
Shocked, they retreated, confused as to which of their superiors had given the order, and began clearing a perimeter several blocks back.
Something happened in the cavernous lobby. The very air changed and began to vibrate. Everyone – human or demon – paused; heads cocked; minds alert. The atmosphere became filled with electric potential; light fixtures exploded one after another like popcorn. Lucine got to her feet.
A tremendous power filled her as the being she always was – the dread mal'ach hamavet – began to manifest before them.
She wove tapestries of protection around herself in Enochian as her form expanded upward until her head touched the high ceiling of the lobby. She felt multiple eyes punch through her wings; eyes that immediately saw what no human could see.
THE BOMB IS IN THE WALL THE BOMB IS IN THE WALL RIGHT TO THE LEFT OF THE RECEPTION AREA
Her upper face morphed into a smooth eyeless dome. Ignoring the gasps of horror from the men she stretched her ebony wings across the great room. Grinning her terrible death-head smile, she snapped them hard, the air burst flinging the terrorists to the far side of the lobby.
Three breathless seconds passed. She pulsed another message to the officers.
GET AWAY GET AWAY NOW AND DON'T LOOK AND COVER YOUR EARS
The power of Heaven and of the ages coursed through her. Lucine was enveloped with a white light that blinded the humans who gazed upon her. Her garments, pure white and as new as the day she had been created, became brighter than a thousand suns. The terrorists screamed.
YOU WILL NOT HARM MY ANUNG UN RAMA OR HIS KIN BECAUSE I WILL NOT ALLOW IT
Suddenly, the air was sucked out of the room as Lucine the Destroyer opened her mouth and roared out death and doom, exploding the heads of each and every human and demon. Simultaneously, every window in One World Trade Center blew out. The souls of the humans – tiny points of light – were immediately pulled into the inverted dome that constituted the upper half of Lucine's head. Curiously, they briefly formed a glittering halo around her terrifying white face.
Once the last soul was captured, Lucine vanished.
All at once, the huge lobby doors burst open, admitting members of the Nuclear Emergency Support Team, desperate to get to the bomb behind the reception area wall. A group of law enforcement personnel streamed in behind them.
"Steady on," said a large rugged man with a sandy beard as he shouldered his way through the crowd. "Tell me this. Can this bomb be frozen?"
A NEST member looked at him, confused. "Why – yes," he returned. "Liquid nitrogen can stop a detonation, depending on the – "
"Then you people had better clear the area and I'll take care of it," said Ullr the Winter God.
The operative looked frantically around the man to see how much equipment he carried. He saw none. Others stood their ground, uncertain of the man's authority to order them around; at least, until what became a blinding snowstorm was suddenly pulled down from high above them, right through the ceiling, and swirled around the newcomer with icy cold and bitter winds. "I will give you ten seconds to clear the area," Ullr said calmly.
Everybody ran – cops, firefighters, bystanders. It was a near thing because a polar vortex spiraled up and out of Ullr's body and froze the entire Freedom Tower solid, inside and out. The thermonuclear device – hidden within a crevice in the great front lobby wall – froze solid as well.
And with that, the terrorist attack was over.
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Elizabeth Sherman looked back and up to see the Freedom Tower explode – no, it was the glass; just the panes of glass! They showered down upon the evacuated wasteland of city blocks. Some of them exploded dangerously near her. She screamed and continued to run, her children wailing as they bounced along in a clumsy triumvirate.
A sudden chill swept through the air, nearly knocking Liz down. The air became so cold that she gasped for breath and crouched over, desperately trying to place the palms of her warm hands over the mouths and noses of her infants. She looked up once again and saw pure white ice crackle its way all the way up to the summit of the great icon to the American spirit. The Freedom Tower had somehow been frozen, and glittered in the sun like a lovely shard of afternoon fire.
And then something happened; something Liz had no words to describe. Her imminent death, along with the deaths of her children, had somehow been –
Averted?
HOW?
And for the first and last time in her life, Elizabeth Sherman had a vision. Lucine's face swam before her. The death angel looked as she did when Liz first saw her except that she was new and beautiful and radiated a brilliant white light. Lucine smiled at her, and the thought she slammed into Liz's brain was one that promised comfort and safety.
BE WELL MY FRIEND TAKE CARE OF ALL FOUR OF THEM
And then, she was gone.
Liz, exhausted and confused, fell to her knees on the cold concrete and burst into hard and burning tears. For a moment she was sorry that she had abandoned the stroller many blocks behind as the muscles in her arms burned with overexertion. What did Lucine mean? Who was she supposed to take care of, then?
Red, for certain!
And the twins! But who else?
A new flood of tears ran down her cheeks as it came to her.
Tom Manning, of course.
Oh my God he will be lost without her, she thought, shaking her head and bending over, feeling as if she might vomit. She knelt on the sidewalk for a little while as Trevor and little Liz cried along with her.
She looked up suddenly. Running toward her were Red, Abe, and a group of agents.
A surge of joy thrummed through her body.
Thank you dear Lord for GPS!
