London. Earlier that morning. Uriel and Ammun's apartment above their freight warehouse. Ammun's burner phone is blowing up. He flips it open.
Adam. What's up.
DeeDee just called. Uriel and Hekla have been taken to Heaven by the Archangel Michael and those Twins. Eric was discorporated. I can't reach Crowley.
It's Sunday. Bastard's probably fookin' his angel. Looks like this one's up to us, kid. Give me a moment to think. I'll call you right back.
Ammun strides around the apartment. Gets a half-empty bottle of gin from the cupboard, drinks the remainder in one long go. He's had a couple of millennia worth of experience as a raider and commando, and it doesn't take him long to piece together a strategy and tactics.
Ah.
Wiping his lips with the back of his hand, he calls Adam back.
Have DeeDee summon your little Baepsae platoon. Here's what we'll do . . .
Heaven. Gabriel's airy suite overlooking the fabulous vista of Earth. Uriel has gradually positioned herself close to the windows, gazing outward as if in boredom while Gabriel sits at his desk and works out what actions to take. She taps her gold and diamond Apple watch as if idly checking the time, stares fixedly at it for a moment, then resumes gazing out the window. Gabriel's words, "You may all leave now," are barely out of his lips when Uriel dives through the window into the air outside, unfurling her wings as she plummets downward.
None of the other angels can do this fade-through-walls trick. They all stand gaping. Michael is the first to move. Gets out her phone.
Security! Send a platoon to surround the building. Watch for the angel Uriel. Capture her.
Too late. Identical grey Ford Fiesta Olas crowd the streets surrounding the H&H Main Office. Uriel sees the fleet of little cars, recognizes what they are. The disposable demon drivers watch as the angel with green wings dives down the side of the building like a stooping falcon. The passenger door of the vehicle closest to Uriel's likely landing opens. She brakes her wings, tucks them, and dives into the car. The vehicles scatter like a swarm of rats as security angels in white track suits spill out of the building. Beneath an underpass, evidently stalled and marked with orange cones and tape, a delivery lorry is parked. An Ola pulls up behind, Uriel vaults from it and through the closed freight doors at the back. The Ola proceeds through the underpass as if it had not stopped at all. A quarter of an hour later, the cones and tape vanish, and the delivery van trundles off. Destination: Edinburgh.
Three days later. Heaven. Metatron's 13th floor of the Main Office. Doric pillars in gleaming gold mark the entry to the immense library of personnel scrolls for ten million angels. Acres of scribes in flowing white gowns sit on benches before cramped desks with small 45-degree writing platforms, busily inscribing scrolls with varicolored inks and gilding. Courier scribes pass along the ranks, dropping off and picking up scrolls. Although conversations are carried on in a whisper, there is nonetheless a persistent background rustle and hum. On a bench at a shabby little desk in a remote corner, Hekla sits with her arms folded on the writing platform, weeping. Her supervisor and the section head glide down the pathway to her corner and stand beside her desk. Her supervisor leans over her, places a gentle arm across her shoulder.
Hekla, my dear. This weeping must stop. It is not good for you. Is there anything we can do to make your transition to our department easier?
Hekla sits up, unfocused pale blue eyes gazing into an unseen distance. A brief flicker of consciousness, then:
I would like to be a sweeper.
The two senior angels regard one another. They are not cruel and demanding creatures. The section head purses her lips, then murmurs:
I see no objection to that. Better to be moving around than sitting weeping. And it will accustom you to our organizational layout.
She turns to Hekla's supervisor:
Call Housekeeping. Request the appropriate uniform and tools for Hekla.
Turning to Hekla, she murmurs,
Report to Housekeeping for your gear, Hekla, and then return here. Let us know when you feel able to begin filing.
The two senior angels leave. As they approach the arch of the section entryway, the executive whispers to the supervisor:
Tch. Terribly tragic case, that. Imagine. Congress with a human, then a demon. She's lucky she wasn't sent to join The Fallen.
Words fail the supervisor. He can only shake his head.
Hekla, for the first time since her arrival, reaches inside her hoodie pocket in her bicycling outfit beneath her scribe's robe. Turns her back to the room, checks messages. There are two. The first is from Principality Ammun:
Uriel safe. DeeDee says Eric in Beelzebub office. Courage.
The second is from Demon Crowley:
Storage.
A puzzled frown. Then her posture straightens. She gazes into the distance for a long while. Then rises from her bench and strides toward the freight elevators.
Heaven. First floor storage. A lone sweeper trundles a rolling bin along a dim corridor. It's Hekla. She approaches a heavy metal door at the very end. Taps in the key code. It hasn't been changed. 4227435. She shoulders the door to push it open, pulls her bin inside.
Heaven. Metatron's floor. Between the golden pillars towering above the entry to the vast scroll library. A sweeper with a broom rolls a bin across the marble floor and past the reception desk. The scribe in charge barely looks up. Just a housekeeper. He's engrossed in the hot new scroll of the underground serial novel, Acer Feel: The Memoirs of an Angel of Pleasure, in which the hero has (yet again) been captured and imprisoned in the lair of the fiery-haired demonatrix Antonia. Seeing the Head Librarian sailing through a distant doorway and approaching for the daily session of Management by Walking Around, he rolls up a scroll with end caps titled Annals of the Accountants MMXIX, concealing the illicit fiction within. The sweeper has disappeared into the stacks, unnoticed.
For those just tuning in, we first meet Uriel and Ammun in early chapters of volume one of The Big One:
Chapter 6: An Unexpected Visitor
Chapter 8: Midnight Confession
Chapter 12: Sheep Go To Heaven
Chapter 16: Jinn
