Heaven Bent Read online

  Lashing out my hand, I grabbed the detonator away from her. "Pretty sure there aren't any real bombs in Heaven, N.W." Turning to the audience, I spread my arms wide. "No one's getting hurt here, folks!"

  My voice was drowned out by the shouts and thundering footfalls of the stampeding crowd. There were logjams at every exit; people were fighting like animals to push their way through.

  "It's a metaphor, people!" I yelled the words as loud as I could and held the detonator overhead. "There's nothing to worry about!"

  I had zero impact on the crushing panic. Didn't these dimwits get it?

  Maybe there was a way to punch through the static. "Look! I'll press the button myself!" I pushed my finger toward the device. "You'll see! Nothing will happen!"

  "Give me that!" N.W. leaped in and grabbed the black box out of my hand. "Good thing you've got a death wish, because you're about to die."

  "How can you have a death wish if you're already dead?" I said. "Anyway, this is all a damn fantasy." Lunging at her, I grabbed a fistful of the wiring sticking out of her explosive girdle, and then I yanked.

  The wires tore free. N.W. looked down in surprise.

  "See?" I flung the disconnected wiring to the stage. "Like I said--it's just a metaphor."

  The crowd didn't stop fighting its way out of the auditorium. No one even looked in our direction.

  Hands on my hips, I shook my head in dismay. "I give up. This situation is out of control."

  There was a rectangular digital display, six inches long, on the front of the bomb. Suddenly, it lit up with red digits counting down from 30:00.

  N.W.'s face turned grave. "Now you've done it, Stag. We have less than thirty seconds. No one can stop this."

  As she said it, bald men in white uniforms came pouring out of the wings and onto the stage. As they grabbed hold of her and wrestled her to the boards, I stepped back out of the way.

  No sooner had I done that than I heard a loud whizzing sound from above. Hastily looking up, I saw a man dressed in black hurtling down on a zip line from an opening in the ceiling. He wore a black mask over the top half of his head.

  When he landed in front of me, I recognized him from the hostage incident earlier that day. He was the one who'd ridden up on a giant sheepdog and whisked away M.J. and the supposed hostage, Norma.

  He took me by surprise, grabbing hold and hugging me against him. "Come with me!"

  Several of the bald guys in the white uniforms bolted toward us--but he was too quick for them. He pushed a button on his belt, and the zip line shot us up and away.

  We made it to the opening in seconds and popped out like toast, suspended from a four-legged framework mounted over the gap. The masked man swung us to one side, and our feet landed on the surface of the rooftop.

  "Get clear of that hatch, friend." His voice sounded familiar, deep and resonant, as he set me aside. "It's comin' any second now." He unbuckled the zip line harness from his chest and left it hanging.

  Just as he stepped clear of the hole, pulling me with him, there was a blast like a clap of thunder from below. The rooftop shook underfoot, and a geyser of dust and smoke pulsed out of the opening.

  I stopped and stared as debris fragments showered down around the hatchway. "But...but..." The roof rumbled with increasing intensity. Networks of fissures appeared and spread rapidly across the moonlit surface. "But I thought it was a metaphor."

  "You really have been drinkin' the Kool-Aid, haven't you?" The masked man spun me around by the shoulder. "Well, you'd best snap out of it, boy. That woman made the ultimate sacrifice to set you free. I expect you won't let it go to waste."

  "I don't understand." I shook my head, trying to clear the fog that had swirled into it. "You mean that bomb was for real? You're telling me a bomb can do as much damage in Heaven as on..."

  Suddenly, he clapped his hand over my mouth and held it there. "Shut up." His bright blue eyes stared at me through the holes in his black mask. "We need to go. Got it?"

  I nodded, and he pulled his hand away. Then, he tipped his head back, stuck two fingers in his mouth, and let out a shrill whistle.

  We stood there a moment, the rooftop continuing to fissure around us. A loud cracking sound like the splintering of giant redwood trees competed with the rumbling.

  Then, a shadow fell over us both. Looking up, I saw the brown belly of a winged creature pass overhead--and I heard a mighty roar surpassing even the cracking and rumbling of the roof.

  When the creature landed, I was stunned at the sight of it. There before us, on four feet equipped with gleaming talons, was what looked like a giant platypus, complete with black duckbill to match its ebon wings.

  The creature roared again, and the masked man rushed me toward it. "Don't worry," he said. "Thundercloud won't hurt you. Climb aboard and hold on tight, man."

  With that, he grabbed fistfuls of the fur behind the creature's head and pulled himself up, swinging a leg over its back.

  Just then, the splintering noise surged all around us, becoming a sustained crashing blast. Hesitating alongside Thundercloud, I watched as the roof crumbled--starting near the hatchway and swiftly expanding outward. Chunks of masonry fell inward, taking other chunks with them in a violent chain reaction.

  "Wake up!" said the masked man, and then he seized my arm and pulled me toward him. "Look alive, man!"

  The disintegration was fast approaching us. Grabbing Thundercloud's silky fur, I vaulted up onto his back behind the masked man.

  "Hold on!" The masked man kicked the creature's sides as if he were riding a horse. "Yahh, Thundercloud! Yahh!"

  The big black wings began to beat. We rose from the rooftop, slowly at first--and just barely in time. Seconds after Thundercloud's clawed feet left the surface, it collapsed under us.

  "Higher, Thundercloud!" The masked man kicked the creature's flanks again. "Higher, girl!"

  The black wings beat harder, and we climbed faster into the sky. Down below, the rest of the roof gave way, taking the walls with it. The entire auditorium folded in on itself like a house of popsicle sticks, sending up a plume smoke and debris.

  "Higher!" shouted the masked man. "Higher, girl!"

  Thundercloud angled upward. I felt myself slipping and tightened my grip, barely holding on.

  We were racing the rising plume, trying to get away from it. I swear, it almost got us--but Thundercloud was just a little too fast for it. Looking down, I saw the plume nearly touch us...and then it crested and started to recede. As it billowed back to the ground, the masked man cheered, and Thundercloud roared.

  "We did it!" Tugging on the creature's fur as if it were reins, the masked man leveled us out. "Ain't that a kick, man?"

  "You betcha." As the plume dropped, clearing my view of the ground, I realized we'd gained some serious altitude. Eyeballing it, I figured we were about as high up as I'd been during my helicopter stunt at the Brooklyn Bridge. My fatal helicopter stunt.

  Chills raced up my spine at the thought of it. My hands started to sweat. I shut my eyes for a moment and took deep breaths, trying to calm myself down.

  "So, Stag," said the masked man. "Still think there aren't any real bombs in Heaven?"

  His deep voice anchored me. It sounded very familiar, though I couldn't quite nail down why. "It still doesn't make sense." I opened my eyes and gazed down at the rubble that used to be the huge auditorium. "But I can't argue with the evidence, can I?"

  "No you can't." The masked man tugged on Thundercloud's fur, and the creature turned right. "And you best never do so again, or you might end up in sorry shape."

  "How sorry?" I said.

  "Dead sorry," he told me. "Just because you're in Heaven, that doesn't mean you can't die all over again."

  I snorted and shook my head. "That's like the exact opposite of what I've been told since I got here."

  "It's one of the true rules of Heaven," said the masked man. "Count yourself lucky you finally heard it from me."

  As Thundercloud
continued banking right, gliding away from the sea, I took a good look at the scenery below. Seven giant domes clung to the shore, lit from within by filigrees of light and gleaming pale white in the moonglow. The auditorium building had been outside their walls, in the middle of the vast complex. Now, there was just a huge pile of rubble where the seven connecting tunnels from the domes had once intersected.

  Further inland, I saw lush green jungle stretching for miles. At first, I could see no other artificial structures, but as Thundercloud kept banking, I did glimpse a silver spire in the distance, deep in the jungle.

  And there was one more structure, though I didn't spot it just then.

  "So where to now?" I asked.

  "Takin' care of business." The masked man straightened Thundercloud's path. "Another rescue, man. Also another eye-opener for you in the bargain."

  "I'll be honest with you, my ass is dragging," I told him. "I don't suppose you've got Starbucks in Heaven?"

  The masked man chuckled. "You'll be perkin' up soon enough. Our next job'll get your blood pumpin'."

  The wind ruffled my hair as we soared over the complex of domes and kept going. "So where exactly are we headed?" From what I could see, there was nothing but ocean, beach, and jungle along our flight path.

  "Right there, man." He pointed dead ahead. "Something else that doesn't belong in Heaven."

  I squinted over his shoulder, but I couldn't see what he was pointing at. Just more of the same ocean, beach, and jungle.

  But as we followed the gradual curve of the shoreline, something came into view. Something massive.

  Something dark.

  As we got closer, and more of it became visible, the sight left me breathless and speechless. It was an enormous dome, bigger than all the others put together--and it was black. Solid black.

  After a moment, my voice came back to me. "What is this place?" The dome's glossy surface gleamed like tar in the moonlight. From a distance, it looked perfectly smooth, without a single distinguishing feature. "What's it called?"

  "Officially, it doesn't exist," said the masked man. "But I call it Heavenless." He looked back at me with ice in his blue eyes. "Because what's in there has nothing at all to do with Heaven, man."

  Why did I feel like I was in a movie all of a sudden? A 3-D fantasy action picture with a summer release date? "So who are we rescuing?"

  "You already know him," said the masked man. "He was the hostage taker at the fountain."

  "M.J.?" I frowned. "But he got away, didn't he? You guys escaped on the sheepdog."

  "We did, but he got caught in another operation." The masked man tugged on the fur in his grip, and Thundercloud swooped down toward the dome.

  "What operation was that?" I asked.

  "Breaking someone out of Heavenless," he told me as we swooped lower, ever lower. And the black dome loomed larger, ever larger before us.

  *****

  We landed at the base of the dome, on the side nearest the jungle. We dismounted Thundercloud, and the masked man led her to a hiding place in the dense foliage. "Stay right here, girl." He patted Thundercloud's head affectionately. "We'll be back in a little while."

  Thundercloud bobbed her head and made a loud purring sound in her throat.

  Then the masked man strode out of the jungle and marched straight for the dome.

  I fell right in beside him. "No fences to keep people out, I see."

  "Because no one wants to go inside, most of the time," said the masked man. "Not many people even know it's here."

  The dome seemed even more vast from the ground, blotting out everything that lay beyond it. I felt strange as we approached it--shaky and queasy--though I wasn't sure if it was something the dome was doing or just my own fear at the ominous sight.

  "So what exactly is this place?" I asked. "What happens here?"

  "You'll find out." The masked man walked up to the dome and touched the glossy black surface. Leaning close, he seemed to listen for a moment, then moved along, skimming the wall with his fingertips.

  Gazing up as I followed, I marveled at the immensity of the thing. It seemed too huge and perfect to be manmade--more like a natural landmark or something divinely created. "Awful big to be a freakin' metaphor, if you ask me," I said.

  The masked man shushed me and kept skirting the base of the dome. He stopped again, continued onward--then did the same thing several more times.

  Finally, he seemed to find what he was looking for. At one stopping point, he placed both hands and his forehead against the dome. He stayed like that a long moment, then stepped back.

  "Right here." He nodded and pointed. "They left the door open a crack for us."

  I moved closer, squinting. "I don't see a crack," I said. "And 'they' who?"

  "I was speaking figuratively." The masked man fished around in his jacket pocket for something. "And 'they' are friends of mine."

  I hiked a thumb at the dome wall. "You have friends on the inside?"

  "Never you mind." He pulled out a black leather drawstring pouch. "Assume we're on our own from here on out." Loosening the drawstring, he opened the pouch and poured out the contents.

  What looked like dozens of squirming, glowing maggots trickled into the palm of his gloved hand.

  I scowled at them. "So what are these things supposed to do?"

  The masked man pocketed the pouch, then pinched some of the maggots from the pile in his hand. He sprinkled them on the dome wall--and they stuck. "Maggots eat dead things." He sprinkled more on the wall. "And that's all this dome is--dead tissue. Mummified, like. Created by a process of controlled growth, rot, and dehydration." He kept applying the tiny, glowing worms to the dome in a roughly rectangular area. They immediately set to work chewing and burrowing, glowing brighter all the time. "It's the perfect meal for these special little souped up maggots. With the right crack in the door, they can dig in and really go to town."

  As I watched, the tiny creatures wriggled back and forth, tunneling into and out of the black substance of the dome. They moved faster and faster, zipping around like meteors ricocheting in the night sky.

  Within moments, pieces of the wall started dissolving, leaving pits and gaps in the surface. Then, all at once, the entire rectangular section melted away like ice under a sudden blast of heat.

  "Pretty cool, huh?" The masked man chuckled.

  I just shook my head and stared. "Amazing is more like it."

  "Glad you like 'em, thanks." He clapped me on the shoulder. "Thank you very much."

  Yet again, I was struck by how familiar his voice sounded--though I couldn't quite figure out why.

  "Let's go." He started through the opening in the wall, gesturing for me to follow. "Time's a-wastin'."

  *****

  The masked man and I ran through a network of hallways glowing with dim red light. Though he didn't carry a map, he always seemed to know where he was going. Maybe he was tapping into the place somehow; every so often, he paused, touched the walls, and closed his eyes--then started moving again, turning right-left-right or whatever without hesitation.

  It wasn't hard to believe he could commune with Heavenless, that it had some kind of mind. The corridors looked organic--smooth and tubular, like the inside of blood vessels in a body. They were gray, not red, which made sense if the place was made of mummified tissue...but they definitely looked like they'd once been alive.

  Not to mention, I was still getting a weird vibe, weirder than ever. From the moment I stepped inside, the queasiness and shakiness spiked and never subsided. So maybe there was some kind of life force at work in there, and it was pushing my damn buttons big time.

  Or maybe it was just that I was totally lost and disoriented and had no idea what mess we were heading for. The fact that I'd recently died and been put through the wringer ever since might have had something to do with it, too.

  Boy, did I need a break from Heaven.

  "Hold up!" After a while, he finally stopped at a junction of corridors. He p
laced an index finger to his lips, signaling silence, then leaned out into the junction for a look--first right, then left. "This way." Slowly, he moved out to the left, waving for me to come with him.

  We followed the tunnel a short distance--thirty yards, maybe forty--staying low and quiet the whole way. At that point, we reached another junction and turned right. This put us in a short tube dead-ending in a glossy black panel.

  We crept forward even more cautiously. When we reached the panel, he pulled another drawstring pouch from his pocket.

  "This is it," he said, opening the pouch. "Now, when we get inside, stay back and stay quiet, no matter what. Understand?"

  I frowned and nodded.

  "Because what you're about to see is gonna turn things upside-down, man. It's gonna flip your wig." Sticking three fingers into the pouch, he drew out what looked like a glowing green garter snake. "So you gotta promise you'll keep your head in there."

  "Maybe if you just tell me what to expect..."

  "Gotta see it to believe it, man." With that, he turned away and held the snake against the edge of the black panel. He pressed the head to the surface at eye-level, then stretched out the rest of its sixteen-inch length along the seam. When he pulled his hands away, the snake remained firmly in place.

  Nothing happened for a moment. Then, the masked man squished the middle of the snake's body with his thumb, splitting it in two.

  The top half of the snake slid upward, while the bottom half headed for the floor. As the two halves slipped along the seam, they left smoking, bubbling trails in the glossy black substance.

  When the halves reached the very top and bottom of the panel, they fell away. The masked man kicked them aside, then reached out and pushed the panel with his fingertips. It swung freely inward.

  As soon as we edged through the doorway, I was struck by waves of intense heat. It wasn't hard to see what the source was.

  We were standing along the wall of a big room with a huge furnace roaring away in the middle. It looked like it was made of the same black material as the dome and the door we'd just come through.