Battle Angel (Immortal City 3)

The fact that Louis was working with Sylvester and Susan, that he’d been instrumental to the resistance’s founding, was monumental. But it also made Angel life incredibly dangerous for him. Every day he stayed in the lion’s den that was the sanctuary was another day he could be found out, which is why he took every precaution possible. He used only backup burner phones with untraceable SIM cards, so he could send coded texts to Susan and Sylvester for them to decode on the other end. He had a special “dead-drop” system, where he would leave documents for an unknown agent to pick up and deliver to the resistance. And if all else failed, his assistant, also a resistance member, had a surefire contingency plan should anyone ever come looking for him in the middle of those nights when he had to steal away from the sanctuary to attend a clandestine meeting.

“Any problem getting out tonight?” Sylvester asked.

“Nope, not a one. The boys have the system down pretty good,” Louis said. He looked at David and Susan. “All right. Let’s get start

ed. You first.”

“We’ve established lines of communications with Linden and the top officials of the Global Angel Commission,” Archangel Archson said.

“Good. Don’t talk to anyone even remotely associated with Angel City. Get as close to Linden as you can,” Louis said. “I don’t even know if I trust all his Cabinet members. If Gabriel has infiltrated any part of the GAC, he’s not letting on one bit. At least not to me.”

“What about David’s fear that the demons have somehow evolved?” Susan asked. “Some of the information we got from the field shows sightings of demons that are larger, more advanced than any of the Dark Angels the Immortals faced in ancient times. And they were so methodical, so . . . deliberate and organized. Are the Angels saying anything about that?”

“Are you talking about some kind of . . . super demon?” Kreuz asked.

“If only,” Sylvester said darkly. “I have a theory. Some thing is controlling them. A leader. They’re sending out scouts, finding our weaknesses. Wearing down the human psyche. They’re making sure that Angel City will be that much easier to conquer. Normal demons wouldn’t do that on their own. No. There is a leader among the Dark Ones. If we can find it . . . we could end this. We’ve just got to be one step ahead of them. We need to find its patterns, its weaknesses. That’s our key to finding the leader, and the leader is our key to defeating these demons. We cut the head off the leader, we cut the head off the entire army.”

“So . . . you’re saying we wouldn’t like to meet this head demon in a dark alley,” Louis mused. “As far as head demon, or super demons, if the NAS experts monitoring the demons know anything about it, they ain’t saying. Seems like they mostly just want to lie low, keep the sanctuary in one piece, and dodge any cross fire.”

“It seems like just yesterday I was tracking that lone demon Angel killer . . . ,” Sylvester said. “Now we’ve got an entire army to hunt.”

“Look on the bright side,” Louis said. “At least property prices are finally going to go down. Even if it is going to be a hell of a lot hotter with all these demons around.” He couldn’t help laughing at his own joke—classic Kreuz, Sylvester thought.

“If David’s right about the head demon, we’re going to need all the support and Immortal firepower we can get to root it out. Before it’s too late,” Susan said. “You’ve got to help us get to the Angels, Louis.”

“Something is definitely going on with the NAS and the Council,” said Louis. “They’re getting nervous. Maybe they know the resistance is growing. Gabriel has tapped the Godspeed kid to be his boy.”

“Jackson?” Sylvester said.

Louis nodded. “I don’t know how much Godspeed Junior knows. But our other spies tell me he’s spending a lot of time over in the chambers and with Gabriel in his little solarium. I know they ain’t just playing checkers.”

“We just need you and the others to stay in place,” Susan said. “And for everyone’s sake, be safe, Louis.”

“Don’t worry. I ain’t going nowhere. We’re too close,” he said. “And from what I understand, you can’t get a good steak or a decent Cuban up here in Angel City anymore, anyway.” He chuckled, gnawing on the tip of his unlit cigar, imported directly—and illegally—from Havana. “What about Maddy?” Louis asked. He’d always taken a particular interest in her, and, truth be told, he’d had a soft spot for all the Godrights since Sylvester could remember.

“Apparently she’s spoken with Linden. We don’t know details yet. We’re waiting to talk to the big man himself.”

Kreuz drained his 7UP and set the glass down on the table.

“I don’t like it,” he said. “I’ve got a bad feeling. There’re too many loose ends. We’re running out of time. It’s going to be too little, too late.”

“Maybe. But we’re not in a position yet to strike,” Susan said. “We just need a little more time.”

“I hope we got it,” Kreuz said.

“I suppose we’ll find out,” Sylvester said. “We just need to get to the head demon. We’ve got to make it happen, any way we can.”

Susan’s handbag started ringing. She plucked out her phone and looked at the caller ID. “One of Linden’s people. Excuse me, gentlemen,” she said, standing up to take the call at the other end of the bar.

The bartender, who had been busying himself by the bar, purposefully out of earshot, saw that the meeting was winding down. Their glasses had been drained. Kreuz was stretching. He went over to pick up the empties and wipe down the table.

“Just put it on my tab,” David said.

“The Seven-UP’s on the house,” the bartender said.

Kreuz popped a final handful of peanuts into his mouth from the battered plastic bowl in front of him. “Funny, they got lobster in the sanctuary. But you can’t find no peanuts. Talk about a lack of planning.”

Sylvester felt Kreuz’s eyes on his shaky hands as he handed the bartender his empty glass.