He paused as there was a scream from Yin’s aircraft, and looked over at it. Which was fortunate because his wingman was banking hard towards him and about to midair.
“Son of a bitch,” Lovell snapped, banking into a barrel roll. “Yin, what the fuck?”
“Wildcat. Status,” the air combat controller called.
“Wildcat Four Two is in OOC,” Lovell said, turning to look at the descending aircraft. Yin was in a flat spin and still screaming. “Tardis, punch it! EJECT, EJE…”
Then his eyes glanced to the ground.
Barbara shook her head as the spinning F-16 slammed into a distant mountaintop and exploded in fire.
“Lord, please send me the power to destroy this thing,” Barb whispered fiercely. “There are many faithful in this nation. Would You ignore Your Chosen because of those few who are blind? Please, Lord, give us Your mercy.”
“I don’t think it’s going to work,” Janea said, flipping down her FLIR and picking up the target designator. “I think you’re getting Stern God on this one. Very Old Testament. Jesus need not apply. Believe or be damned.”
“I think you might be right,” Barb said. “And I’m not sure which way we’ll hop.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“There is BDA from the site,” the Air Force Chief of Staff said over the video link. “Are you sure you actually hit the target? The bomb craters looked as if we were just bombing an open field.”
“Oh, they hit,” Janea said nastily. “But they didn’t have any effect. They blew up real nice. And it didn’t even slow the Gar down. It was like it wasn’t there.”
“If you’d been looking at it, you’d think we were bombing a hologram,” Barb said. “That’s a demonic effect I’ve seen before. Bullets just go right through, and then it hits something and destroys it. Don’t ask me how it works; it’s metaphysics.”
“That wasn’t the worst part,” Janea said bitterly. “ I was looking through the scope. It brought its captives with it. Even they were protected.”
“How many?” the NSA asked.
“Five, I think,” Janea said. “Those we couldn’t grab at the slaughterhouse. And, honestly, if I’d been one of them, as I almost was, I’d have preferred the bombs worked on me. I’d be thanking you from Hel.”
“You think you’re going to hell?” SOCOM asked. “You’re a priestess.”
“Hel, H-E-L,” Janea said, rolling her eyes. “It’s where Asatru go that don’t die in battle. Sort of like Christian limbo. Just a boring place.”
“That is interesting but not getting us anywhere,” the NSA said. “Suggestions.”
“The faith of the nation is being tested,” Barb said, tightly. “That’s the bottom line. We are not going to be able to stop this thing absent God’s aid. And He is being, as Janea pointed out, Old Testament. We either prove that we still retain faith in Him or we might as well be doomed now.”
“I hate to ask this, but nuclear weapons?” the NSA said. “It is on the table.”
“Then you’d just have a radioactive pissed-off Old One,” Janea snapped. “You’re not getting it. There was no effect. None. It’s insubstantial to most things. But it can affect its environment if it chooses. I strongly doubt that plasma is going to help, no matter how much you throw at it. There are references to these things inhabiting stars. That’s more firepower than we’ve got, buddy.”
“Janea,” Barb said.
“No,” Janea said. “I’m tired of being looked at like a freak because I believe. Well, get this straight, you stupid suit bastards. Get with belief, now, fast, or this country, this nation, this continent and this world is doomed. Get that through your fat politician heads, for Freya’s sake. I don’t care if you believe in the White God or Odin or fricking Vishnu! Just get some faith, fast, or find somebody to do your job who has it!”
“Janea,” Augustus said. “Your passion is understood. But try to be a bit less Asatru for a moment. NSA.”
“Go,” the NSA said, his jaw working.
“We need to move this discussion to the next level,” Augustus said. “And I strongly recommend bringing in the SC Onsite team, passionate as one of them may be.”
“I will take that under advisement,” the NSA said balefully. “Break this down.”
“Well, that was fun,” Janea said, starting to take off her headset.
“Miss Janea,” SOCOM said as soon as the other leadership was off the line.
“Yeah?” Janea answered, settling her headset back on.
“I was wondering if, assuming we get this situation under control, you might be in the Tampa area any time soon,” the admiral said, his face blank.
“Is that a palpable hit, admiral?” Janea purred. “You’re kinda cute for an older guy.”
“Ahem,” the admiral said, clearing his throat. “I appreciate the compliment. But actually…I’d like to talk to you about this Asatru thing. Any religion where the prime requirement is to die in battle…interests me. And all this is sort of giving me religion. Possibly over dinner?”
“Assuming we can kill this thing, it’s a date,” Janea said. “In fact, kill it or not, it’s a date. ’Cause we might as well have fun while the world is consumed by evil.”
“I don’t get where a bunch of people praying are going to help,” Randell said. “Does God need the power? I thought He was all-powerful.”
“No,” Sharice said. “He doesn’t need the power.”
There being effectively nothing to do but wait for doom, absent a miracle, the FBI agents and the cave team had gathered at the SC house. Most of the rest of the groups in the area were packing up as fast as they could. Most of them still didn’t know why, but the panic was palpable in those who did.
“I’m Wiccan, but I fully recognize the power of the White God,” the old witch said, taking a sip of tea. “Whether the White God was, is and ever shall be or not, He is immensely powerful. He could bat the Gar like a fly. A gnat. A mite.”
“So what’s with the ‘the nation must have faith’?” Randell said angrily. “He’s just going to let us die?”
“He might as well,” Janea said, shrugging. “When Ragnarok comes, people are going to have to choose sides. If this nation can’t get its act together with the threat of the Gar…” She paused and frowned.
“What?” Barb asked.
“The Old Ones are neutrals in the battle between our side and the infernal,” Janea said. “And the US is the most powerful nation on earth. If your God, all the gods, are questioning which side the US will come down on…”
“Surely we are not so far gone,” Barb said, her face white.
“This is a pretty good test,” Janea said. “And if we’re so far depraved that we would side with the infernal in the final battle, He can take us out of play by giving us to the Gar. For that matter, it’s probable that the infernal and the Old Ones don’t get along any better than the gods and the Old Ones. It gives the demonic a serious thorn in their side.”
“That is sick,” Randell said. “See, this is why I hate God.”
“Why?” Janea said. “I think it’s brilliant. If we can’t even get it together to face the Gar, we’re sure as Hel not going to get it together before the hosts of the giants. This is a pretty easy and straightforward test. Can we muster enough believers to make a difference? Or are we useless to Him in the final battle? Hel, in the old days He’d have dropped fire from heaven on us for being too far gone. This time we get the Gar. How many Lots can America muster? There’s going to be more than one family, but are there enough?”
“‘And the beast shall arise from the endless depths…’” Barb said, frowning. “Actually, the Gar is sounding a lot like the Antichrist.”
“I thought it was ‘sea,’” Randell said.
“Bad translation,” Sharice said. “More like ‘from complete deepness.’ Apparently, King James had a thing with not liking the ocean. ‘From the sea’ was close enough to ‘from the deep,’ so that’s the King James version. He had about two hundred scholars working on the translation, but he had final approval on the text, and they were…aware of certain political realities. It’s beautiful verse, but there’s a lot of stuff like that in it. ‘Suffer not a witch to live,’” she added a touch bitterly.