"Hey!" the cop yelled. "What the h.e.l.l are you doing?"

"Sorry," Aaron replied.

He sat in the driver's seat of the car, which was still running. He merged into the flow of traffic and continued east towards the lake.

"That was slick," Lucifer said. "Now will you tell me who you are?"

"No."

"That's not fair. I did my part. I gave up peacefully. You owe me."

"I kept you out of jail, didn't I?" Aaron said. "And you're still alive. That's as much as I promised, and much more than you deserve. Now be quiet. I have to call my boss."

He took out his phone and dialed Ethel.

She answered, "Yes?"

"I captured the enemy, ma'am," Aaron said. "I'm dressed as a cop and driving a police car. He's handcuffed in the back seat."

"Excellent work. I knew I could count on you."

"Thanks." He grinned. A compliment from Ethel was a special treat.

"Take the prisoner to headquarters," she said.

"Why?" The order came as a shock.

"Smythe is trying to find a cure for the poison. He could use a live test subject to experiment on, and your man is exactly what the doctor ordered."

"I see, ma'am," Aaron said. "I'm guessing the subject won't survive the experiment."

"He will be dissected afterwards."

"Yuck. Speaking of poison, did you destroy the beer, yet?"

"Marina and I are working on it," she said. "We'll see you at headquarters later. Bye."

He put away his phone.

"What were you talking about?" Lucifer said. "Some kind of experiment?"

"It's good news," Aaron said. "My boss wants you to join the team. In fact she already has a job for you. We're going straight to headquarters, where you're going to help us find a cure for the poison."

"I am?"

"You're perfectly qualified."

"How?" Lucifer said.

"You're expendable."

Lucifer was silent for a long moment. "I'm still going to die, aren't I?"

"Yes," Aaron said.

"Why?"

"The universe is a finely tuned machine. All the parts have to function, and you, my friend, are broken beyond repair. We have to take you out."

"I can change," Lucifer said. "Give me a chance!"

Aaron sighed. "Just relax. Look at the beautiful clouds at sunset. Admire G.o.d's creation for the last time."

Chapter Twenty-nine.

Marina and Ethel stood at the edge of the crowd of beer drinkers. The disappearance of the Eternals had not stopped the party at all. Instead, some other men had taken over the vital duty of dispensing free beer. The redness of their cheeks and the sloppiness of their work indicated they had taken plenty for themselves as a reward for their n.o.ble service.

Marina was still coming down from the adrenalin rush of her fight. She felt a little sleepy as a result. She wanted more action, but that seemed unlikely to happen. The main part of the mission was done, and now they were in the dull and dreary cleanup phase. She hated this part.

"We have to clear these people out, ma'am."

Ethel nodded. "What do you suggest?"

"I have tear gas."

"That's a little extreme. Smoke grenades will suffice."

"Yes, ma'am," Marina said.

They found a secluded spot upwind of the party. Both women took smoke grenades from under their coats, unscrewed the caps, and tossed the canisters onto the gra.s.s. They backed off quickly.

A cloud of greasy, black smoke filled the air. The party evaporated, the men and women fleeing as fast as their wobbly legs would carry them.

When the smoke cleared, Marina was looking at a pile of over a hundred beer kegs. Many of them were still full.

"That was easy," she said. "Now we just have to destroy the beer. I have a stick of C4."

"No," Ethel said. "The explosion would blow hot shrapnel all over the neighborhood. I'll call the manager of the Mooseland brewery. What was his name? Gitelman? I'll have him send a truck and some men to collect the beer."

"That could take an hour or two in this traffic. In the meantime, we'll have to stand guard and keep people away, somehow. And what if the police show up, ma'am?"

Ethel looked up and Marina followed her gaze. A dark rain cloud was forming directly over the pile of kegs. It swelled rapidly as Marina watched, and white electric sparks crackled in the interior. The formation was obviously unnatural.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"Yes," Ethel said. "Run!"

They ran.

Marina was halfway down the block when the world flashed white. An instant later she heard a bang loud enough to stun her. She fell onto her hands and knees. A blast of scorching hot air washed over her, followed by a back draft almost as violent.

Badly shaken, she stood up and looked back. Where the pile of beer kegs had once stood, there was just a smoking crater with molten metal at the bottom.

"That's typical," Marina said in a shaky voice. "G.o.d steps in at the end, after we did all the hard work."

"Don't be irreverent," Ethel said. "You just witnessed a genuine divine intervention."

"We could've used one days ago. This wasn't the easiest mission."

"You didn't enjoy it at all?"

Marina paused. "I have to admit there were satisfying moments, ma'am."

Ethel rolled her eyes. "Let's go home. It's dinner time, and I'm starving."

"Me, too."

Smythe sat at the head of the solid oak conference table in headquarters. He was growing very fond of this room. The many leather-bound books formed a wall of ancient wisdom. Even though the velvet chairs were antiques, they were still soft and plush. Matters of life and death were decided here and the decisions were final. He liked that. He liked a lot of things about the Gray Spear Society.

Ethel, Aaron, Marina and Ramirez were waiting for him to give his presentation. For a solid week, Smythe had worked long hours to a.n.a.lyze the Eternals' poison, and finally, he had unlocked the mystery.

"It's an extremely unusual compound," he said. "It consists of three strands of protein surrounded by a protective coating of sugars."

"Like a candy sh.e.l.l?" Marina said.

He snorted. "More like a crystalline barrier, which is incredibly durable and inert. I've never seen anything like it. The coating allows the poison to pa.s.s through the digestive system and enter the blood. It circulates harmlessly until it comes into contact with bone marrow. There, the high level of calcium breaks down the coating and exposes the protein. That's when the really interesting stuff happens.

"The protein acts almost like a virus. It replicates itself exponentially and eventually forms dense nuggets. They look like black poppy seeds under a microscope. But the reaction is very specific to human bone marrow. As far as I can tell, the protein is harmless anywhere else."

"How does it kill?" Ethel said.

"The replication produces highly toxic byproducts, including neurotoxins," Smythe said. "The Army research lab was able to detect these byproducts, but we never found the source. I don't know how the Eternals invented this stuff. It's far beyond any technology I've ever seen."

"The Eternals didn't invent it. An enemy of G.o.d gave them the formula."

"I'm starting to believe that, ma'am."

"Is there an antidote?" she asked.

"Yes! A large injection of calcium chloride will cause any poison in the blood to break down prematurely, before it reaches the marrow. Destroying the poison that is already active is trickier. I tried various proteinases until I found one in the caspase family that was very effective and safe to inject. Ironically, this is the same type of enzyme that sick cells use to destroy themselves, a process called apoptosis. I can write up a doc.u.ment describing how to prepare and administer the antidote. We can send it to all the hospitals in the area."

"No," Ethel said. "Absolutely not."

Her response shocked Smythe. "Why not?"

"Revealing that information to the world is dangerous. The secret of the poison must never be discovered by anybody else. Even the cure must remain a mystery."

The coldness in her eyes warned him to be careful. He knew she wouldn't tolerate any insubordination, particularly from him. The unapproved trip to Saint Athanasius Hospital had burned the small amount of credit he had with her.

"Thousands of people are sick," he said in a flat, nonaggressive tone. "They need treatment urgently. The Eternals may be gone, but their victims are still dying. What are we going to do about it, ma'am?"

"We'll produce the antidote here in our laboratory. Then, we'll disguise ourselves as doctors and inject it into as many patients as we can find."

He looked at Marina and Aaron to see if they might support his cause. They just stared back at him.

"I don't think that's practical, ma'am," Smythe said. "You can't pick up these exotic enzymes at the corner grocery store. You need to buy them from the big pharmaceutical research laboratories, and they are very expensive. Even if we could acquire the enzymes, we don't have the manpower to manufacture so many doses."

"My entire team will help, including myself," Ethel said. "Now that the mission is done, we're all available. You'll find we're very energetic workers. Don't worry about the ingredients, either. If we pay a high enough price, these laboratories will give us everything we ask for. They may even do some of the prep work for us."

"How big a check are you willing to write?"

She leaned towards him. "You must understand something, Dr. Smythe. I believe G.o.d put you here so you can cure those innocent people. That is your divine calling. As a loyal servant of the Lord, I have the responsibility to make you successful. This is your time, and the extraordinary resources of the Gray Spear Society are at your disposal. How big a check do you need? Is ten million dollars enough? A hundred million? We will spend whatever it takes."

He believed her. More than that, he trusted her.

"Thank you, ma'am," he said. The words hardly conveyed the powerful emotions he felt.

She smiled. "You're welcome. Let's get to work. There are lives that need saving."

"I feel so guilty," Marina said. "Ethel would kill us if she saw us here."

"Then she can't find out," Aaron said.

He knocked on the red front door of a ma.s.sive home built in a traditional style. It was three stories tall, not including the extensive bas.e.m.e.nt. White balconies jutted out on two levels. On the roof there was an open structure that looked like a gazebo, and Aaron knew from personal experience that a picnic table was underneath it. Only two people lived in this house: his parents. He had grown up here.

"Do you think she'd literally kill us?" he said.

Marina nodded. "At least we'd die together like true lovers."

"One day I'll have to figure out how to protect myself from her, just in case."

"Good luck with that."

The front door opened, and Aaron's father was standing there.

Aaron had not seen him in two years, but it looked like he had aged ten. His once broad shoulders were slumped and his back was bent. Only a few strands remained to show the original dark color of his otherwise gray hair. Wrinkles surrounded his green eyes and lined his forehead. He wore a checkered bathrobe.