Rise Of The Nephilim (The Tamar Black Saga) Read online

  ‘I know why you are here of course,’ she said. ‘Saw it coming. She shrugged multiple shoulders. ‘Can’t help you I’m afraid.’

  ‘Can’t or won’t,’ said Tamar.

  ‘Both actually,’ said Arachne. ‘God, it’s so dull having a conversation that one has foreseen. Say something to surprise me – no wait! I remember saying that, and I know what you are going to say so don’t bother. And you can shut up as well,’ she said, just a microsecond before Denny started to laugh. He stopped, startled.

  ‘Okay, since I know you’re going to ask anyway, I can tell you that your boy Ashtoreth has fallen off the map as far as I am concerned. He has no destiny – that is, he appears to be making his own. And God only knows how that will turn out. I certainly don’t.’ she sighed. ‘I’m only telling you this much because it can’t hurt anything. But … there is something funny about it all. It’s as if there are two futures, and that is all bound up with him somehow. And you too for that matter. But it’s not clear.’ She shook her head.

  ‘Can’t you tell us anything?’ said Tamar. ‘What about his warriors, where did they come from? I mean that’s the past. You must be able to see that!’

  ‘You don’t need me for that,’ said Arachne firmly. ‘You know what they are. But if there’s any confusion I will tell you this, the only thing any of them are likely to have watched in the past is Television. And if that helps you one iota then I’m a greenfly.’

  Denny decided to try something, just by way of an experiment. The fact that the last time they had met Arachne had likened him to an upended broomstick might not mean anything, he thought. Cindy had once been pretty contemptuous of his looks too. He smiled at Arachne – that’s all, just a smile.

  It worked immediately. ‘Oh, all right then,’ she said. She leaned forward and said conspiratorially. ‘I cannot see his destiny, nor where he has hidden himself, but I can see yours. You will face him within the year. Until then, nothing can be done against him.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Denny gravely aware that she had not been much help really, but it did not hurt to keep on friendly terms. You never knew.

  Tamar was despondent though. ‘It seems as if we’re never going to find the bugger,’ she said. ‘Everything we try just… just fails!’

  ‘If Arachne’s right,’ said Denny. ‘He’s going to find us! In the meantime, damage control?’

  ‘In the meantime,’ said Tamar fiercely. ‘We don’t just give up. If he can control his own fate, then I’m damned sure I can.’

  * * *

  ‘… And in the time of men, after the age of myths is over, and the age of magic is done, the age of metal and wheels powered by the harnessed lighting will come. And that will be the age of the greatest sin.

  ‘And one will rise up from the legends of the past and take his place among his ancient brethren who have been here from the beginning hiding in the light while all around the darkness falls.

  ‘And he will gather his brethren and lead them in the way of the light.

  ‘And he shall blaze forth his light into the dark corners of the world and destroy the darkness …

  ‘And so shall the sins of the world be cleansed and the age of sin be over.

  ‘But …’

  ‘But what?’ said Tamar, as Denny stopped abruptly.

  That’s all it says,’ he said. ‘There’s some missing. At least there is a “but”.’

  ‘Yeah, “but” it could mean anything.’

  ‘I never heard of a prophecy that said “but” though.’ said Denny. ‘Could be a good sign.’

  ‘What, like, “but … then he gets killed, and everyone lived happily ever after”?’ she said her voice dripping with scorn. Denny did not appear to notice.

  ‘Well, yeah that sort of thing,’ he said, ‘but probably a bit more obscure than that. I mean this doesn’t mention him by name or anything. It doesn’t even call him the Nephilim.’

  ‘No, but it sure sounds like it’s about him.’

  ‘Well, I still say that “but” sounds like an opening,’ said Denny. And wondered why Tamar suddenly fell about laughing.

  * * *

  ‘Speaking of time,’ said Tamar, who had developed a bad habit of returning to earlier conversations that she been having (sometimes several days previously) without warning. ‘I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner.’ And she stopped time.

  ‘That should give us some time to catch up with these bastards,’ she said. ‘I mean we know it works on them,’ she shook her head. I should have done it earlier. I don’t know why I didn’t,’

  ‘Dirty tactics,’ said Denny. ‘We don’t usually, and let’s face it, we never thought it could get so bad so quickly. It sort of crept up on us.’

  ‘Well, dirty tactics or not, we need the advantage. They’re all over the damn place now, attacking in unison. We need time to catch up.’

  But it did not quite work out that way. Ashtoreth, who as it turned out, was clearly not affected by time, as it was passing in the real world, soon caught on to this trick.

  They had not been there five minutes, dispatching frozen warriors with a nasty feeling that they were somehow cheating, when another batch of warriors appeared as if from nowhere

  Obviously, they had been sent directly from the stronghold where there was no time to stop. Well, they were in the real world now. Tamar considered restarting time and stopping it again, thus trapping this lot too and any more that had been sent out elsewhere. But she knew it was no good. Not if he could just keep sending more.

  Stopping time would only help them short term, during a battle (and they did not really need that kind of help) but as a long term plan, it had tanked. They would still be dealing with the problem piecemeal.

  In fact, the only thing stopping time had probably achieved was to prevent Ashtoreth’s hapless victims from fleeing when fresh warriors were sent out.

  In view of this, it was only fortunate, that, having been given the idea, Ashtoreth was not able to stop time himself, or he most certainly would have done.

  * * *

  Another sleepless night for Denny, and Tamar decided to stay up and keep him company, without having the slightest notion that this was the last thing he wanted.

  She was lying on the bed, and Denny was reading – more research, this time about the Nephilim though. He would not do his “secret” research in front of Tamar.

  ‘How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?’ said Tamar suddenly.

  ‘Is that supposed to be funny?’ said Denny. I’d rather know how many half-angels can dance on the end of my sword.’

  ‘Very bloodthirsty,’ said Tamar approvingly. ‘You’re coming on. But I only asked because I’ve been thinking.’

  ‘About angels dancing on pins?’ said Denny, frankly disbelieving.

  ‘They say an infinite number of angels can dance on the head of a pin,’ she said.

  ‘Christ,’ thought Denny, ‘she really has been thinking about it. And I thought I was the one cracking up here.’

  ‘There’s a lot of blather about divinity and all that, but it got me wondering … is there any truth to it?’

  ‘In an infinite universe, anything is possible,’ said Denny sententiously.

  ‘Bollocks,’ said Tamar. ‘The universe isn’t infinite. You should know that. On the other hand … This isn’t the only universe – is it?

  Denny remembered the void after the lights went off and his certainty that there was more out there – in the void, or beyond it.’

  ‘So?’ he said.

  ‘So if a lot of angels, I don’t say an infinite number – just a lot, could dance on the head of a pin,’ she said. ‘And for the purposes of this discussion we are assuming they can, how would they do that?’

  ‘A giant pin?’ said Denny.

  ‘Or very small angels,’ she said.

  Denny sat up and looked at her. ‘Okay, he said. ‘You’re clearly going somewhere with this. Let’s have it.’

 
‘Mini universes,’ she said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s like a microcosm inside a microcosm. Like rock pools. You said that our universe is inside another larger one. Well what if it’s like – Dutch dolls? One inside another?’

  ‘I think you mean Russian Dolls,’ said Denny.

  Tamar waved a dismissive hand. ‘Whatever!’ she said. ‘You know what I mean.’

  ‘Yes, and it’s an interesting idea. As well as parallel universes there could also be diminishing universes on a purely physical level. And it wouldn’t be any problem to a god or an angel.’ He stabbed a finger at the discarded book on his lap. ‘Or half-angels for that matter. If we can shrink down to any size we want, then there’s no reason why they couldn’t. It would be a self-contained universe with its own mainframe so any data pertaining to it wouldn’t be in our mainframe. Very cool.’

  ‘I can see you’ve really taken to the idea,’ said Tamar dryly.

  ‘But why not, it could be the answer. And even if it’s not … fascinating!’ he looked more animated than she had seen him in a long time.

  ‘Dweeb!’ she said affectionately.

  ‘That’s geek, thank you, and this was your daft idea in the first place.’

  ‘But … how do we find such a thing?’ he wondered.

  ‘Ah,’ said Tamar, ‘that’s where quantum comes in handy.’

  ‘You mean magic?’ said Denny. ‘The art of finding a thing without looking for it.’

  ‘Beat you to it!’ challenged Tamar.

  Denny raised an eyebrow. ‘Given your history of stacking the odds in your own favour,’ he said, ‘that remark can only mean that you’ve already done it.’

  Tamar gave a grimace of deep chagrin. ‘You know me too well,’ she said.

  Denny waggled both eyebrows at her in such a comical fashion that she burst out laughing.

  ‘Lead on MacCheat,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t have to,’ she said. ‘I brought it here.’ And she held out a hand.

  On it – just barely visible was …

  ‘The head of a pin?’ said Denny incredulously.

  ‘Not exactly,’ she said. ‘However …’

  ‘That’s what gave you the idea,’ finished Denny. ‘And … there’s really a whole universe in there?’

  ‘Yes, a whole universe. But it’s okay, we won’t have to search it all.’

  ‘Thank god for that. Why not?’

  ‘Quantum,’ they both said together.

  ‘Will it be like our universe?’ asked Denny.

  We’ll soon find out.’ said Tamar. ‘But I’m betting on no.’

  ‘How are we supposed to get in?’ asked Denny.

  For answer, Tamar held up a little bottle marked “Drink Me”.

  ‘Very funny,’ said Denny. ‘You’re saying we just have to be the right size?’

  ‘Yes, we should be drawn in by the natural gravity of this universe once we’re small enough. As long as we’re close enough to it.’

  Tamar would have won her bet hands down had Denny been foolish enough to take her up on it. For one thing, the planets were cuboid and had a silvery mirror like sheen that was just translucent enough to see through and all the land and trees and so on appeared to be inside. And once inside the only habitable one, the people ….

  ‘It’s like the land of the Cyber-men,’ said Tamar unkindly. It was in a way, but much worse. They were bipeds, so that was a relief in a way, but so squat and square that they looked almost like they were trundling along on wheels. Their skin was metallic, not like human skin covered in metallic paint but truly metallic, shiny and smooth, but not reflective. Yet it seemed flexible enough to allow facial expression. Whatever else they were, they were clearly organic creatures and not artificially made. The eyes, although black and shiny, were the eyes of living creatures. Close up it was possible to see rainbows of swirling colours in them, like oil on water.

  Besides, robots did not wear clothes and these did, indicating a sense of modesty peculiar to sentient creatures everywhere.

  To call them ugly was being charitable. The features were squashed up within a tiny squared off area of face making them look like a lot of flattened tin cans with faces painted on them.

  ‘I daresay they look nice enough to one another,’ said Denny. ‘We probably look like hideous monsters to them.’

  Tamar did not like this idea, and was even considering changing her appearance to match the inhabitants, when she realised that Denny would laugh like a drain if she did so. And would probably never want to look at her again either, not with that image in his head. So she refrained.

  She made herself invisible instead. Denny though this was a good idea and followed suit. They were getting frightened stares.

  And then they went for a look around.

  It was evidently a city of some sort. All the buildings, tall and small were built around the same principle. They were all round or cylindrical – just as we make most of our building square and flat. This civilization went in for curved lines and domes. It was like a city of pipes and igloos.

  Fascinating as all this was, it was not why they were here. ‘Let’s get into their mainframe,’ said Tamar.

  Denny was not listening; he was looking around, eyes wide with wonder. ‘Wow!’ he kept saying. ‘Wow! It’s like being on an alien planet. Look at that!’

  ‘I think it’s a garbage truck,’ said Tamar dryly. ‘And not a mega space buggy whatever you might think.’

  ‘Killjoy,’ said Denny.

  Then Tamar stopped and stared herself, but not in fascination or wonder but rather in horror. ‘Not a garbage truck,’ she said pointed forgetting that she was invisible. ‘Well, not unless you consider dead citizens as garbage,’ she added.

  ‘Bring out your dead,’ said Denny in a hollow voice. ‘It’s a plague. Look at the marks on the doors. And they’re incinerating them in that thing.’

  This appeared to be true. As the doors at the back of the truck closed, a bright flash of light shone out for a second then the doors were opened again to reveal an empty space.

  ‘A horrible plague,’ repeated Denny. ‘Do you think Ashtoreth…?’

  Tamar shrugged. ‘Not sure it’s really his style. But … maybe. It’d be a good way of clearing the place out for his soldiers to take over I suppose.’

  ‘Well there’s only one way to find out,’ said Denny.

  ‘I don’t like this,’ said Tamar reaching for Denny’s invisible hand.

  ‘There’s nothing we can do here,’ he admitted. ‘Close file?’

  ‘We can but try,’ she said.

  The mainframe of another universe was disturbingly like their own mainframe. Only the colour scheme was different. Denny was disappointed, but it just went to show, he said, that bureaucrats were the same everywhere.

  ‘I wonder if there’s a little metallic Clive running around in here somewhere,’ said Tamar.

  ‘Who cares?’ said Denny. ‘Can we use this mainframe? ‘It’s all in a different language.’

  ‘Shouldn’t matter,’ said Tamar. ‘After all, we managed to get in using just our intention.’ She concentrated and miraculously the language became English. ‘Virtual reality,’ she said. ‘It’s enough to make you wonder if anything is real.’

  ‘Course it is,’ said Denny dismissively. ‘It’s as real as you want it to be.’

  Tamar liked this idea, and it earned Denny a kiss. ‘What would I do without you?’ she said.

  ‘I dread to think,’ he said. ‘Now can you find out anything or not?’

  ‘Can you?’ she said. ‘You’re the expert and what do you mean you dread to think?’

  Denny ignored this as too difficult. ‘We need the central files,’ he said. ‘This way.’ And he set off.

  It did not take long to ascertain that neither Cindy nor Ashtoreth had ever been in this universe. With the ease of long practice, Denny found his way into the central mainframe hard drive and did a quick search. It turned up nothing.
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br />   ‘Well, said Tamar philosophically, ‘it was worth a try.’

  Tamar, unable to stop herself from well intentioned interference, had sneaked in to a file while Denny was busy doing this, to find a cure for the plague and sent it, as a bolt of inspiration (a pretty easy program to run – the “muse” program) to a doctor type. So, she was feeling relatively satisfied with herself, despite the fact that their personal objectives had not been fulfilled by coming here.

  ‘Cookie?’ she asked. ‘It had “Eat Me” iced on the top.

  ‘You can take a joke too far you know,’ said Denny. However, he took the cookie.

  * * *

  Denny was wrong if he thought that Tamar had not noticed his declining health and strength. Night after night she had lain awake watching him twitch and moan in his sleep. That had been at the beginning. Now she had noticed that he hardly slept at all, she had seen him in the night, stumbling about clutching the Athame, trying desperately to keep awake. She had watched him grow paler and thinner and seen the lines of weariness stretch across his face, seen the hollowness of his eyes increase. It was as if he was being tortured from within or prey to some hideous internal malady. And it was getting worse. Every day he seemed weaker, it tore at her heart to see it, until she felt like she could not stand it anymore. Whatever it was, it was eating away at him like a vicious parasite and turning him into a shadow. Now she lay awake at night, without him, staring into a future that had somehow become terrifying. Never had she imagined something like this. He was so weak now she was afraid he might die.

  It was a quarter past midnight when Denny woke sweating and shivering and rose silently and went downstairs. The situation was taking serious toll now. He could not stay awake forever, but every time he gave in to exhaustion the hag returned to strip him of yet more of his strength.

  ‘Tell me about the dreams,’ said Tamar from the study door. So, she had known all along. He realised he had been a fool to think she would not have noticed.

  She had been watching him for longer than he realised. The familiar contours and hollows of his face glowing gently in the light of the computer screen filled her with a sudden surge of tender love. She would not lose him now, not ever.