“The fallen angels.”
She pulled a wool blanket from the back of the couch over her. “Yeah. When Dom first mentioned them, I thought he was crazy. But with the M.E.'s report and my own experience, what other explanation is there? And I checked out Cayce a little more thoroughly. The man was not a quack. He refused to take money for his work and he helped a lot of people. Research has even been done on his medical predictions, and he had an 86 percent accuracy rate. And I can't help but think...” her voice trailed off.
“If those reading were accurate, why couldn’t the other ones about Atlantis be just as accurate?” Henry sighed into the phone. “I know. I’ve been thinking the same thing.”
She drummed her fingers on the side of the couch as her eyes roamed the room. “In Cayce’s work, he speaks of the split between the Children of the Law of One and the Sons of Belial. But before that time, everyone lived and worked together. And Cayce never explains what caused the split. But if Dom’s right, the fallen angels caused it.”
“I came to the same conclusion. I just don’t know where that gets us.”
They both lapsed into silence for a few moments before Laney broke it. “Henry, can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
She sat up from the couch and started tracing the outline of the handgun on the table. “When Dom mentioned that quote from the Book of Enoch, you and my uncle seemed to recognize it right away. I get why Uncle Patrick did, but why did you?”
Henry was quiet on the other side of the phone. Laney worried that maybe she had overreached.
But then his voice came through, calm as usual. “When I was a child, my mother didn’t read me fairy tales the way other moms did. Instead, she read me the stories of the angels, both good and bad. They were my bedtime tales. It’s funny you should ask me about that, because ever since Dom mentioned the fallen angels, their stories have been filling my mind.”
“Why was she so fixated on angels?”
“I don't know. Now I’m beginning to wonder if she was trying to prepare me for something.”
“So you think Dom could be right?”
“I don't know, Laney. I just don't know.” Laney could hear the exasperation in his voice. “On the one hand, it seems crazy. Angels walking among us and being reincarnated over and over again? But on the other hand,” he paused, “it would explain what we’re dealing with.”
“And that means we need to prepare for the worst.”
“Yes.”
She picked the gun up from the table and sat back on the couch with it in her lap. “So, we’re preparing to go against a fallen angel who’s using men to dig up an ancient source of power.” She took a deep breath. “And who then plans on using said weapon to destroy the world.”
Henry gave a small chuckle. “Well, at least there’s no pressure.”
Laney smiled, but then it fell away. “You know, Henry, as long as we’re being so straightforward, it seems we’re avoiding one big issue.”
“What's that?
“The name. We keep calling them fallen angels, but that’s not entirely accurate. Because when an angel falls, he’s no longer known by that name. He’s called a demon.”
CHAPTER 52
Baltimore, MD
After the attack, Henry had relocated Patrick, Danny and himself to Dom’s bomb shelter. He told the rest of the staff to take a week off. The Chandler Group was currently closed for business.
Henry, however, was still plugging away, although he debated whether or not to call it a night. He pushed back from the computer monitor and rubbed his eyes. God, am I tired.
He’d been running the picture Laney had sent him through recognition systems since he’d gotten off the phone with her. Two hours later, he had nothing to show for it.
He knew Danny would probably be able to do it faster. He couldn’t, though, bring himself to wake him. Danny was asleep in one of the guest rooms down the hall after Henry slipped a sleeping pill into his tea earlier in the afternoon. He hadn’t wanted to, but Danny needed sleep. When he’d brought Danny into the Chandler Group, Henry had hoped to protect him against the violence that he’d been exposed to in his early life. Today, he’d failed at that task, and it was eating him up inside.
“To sleep or not to sleep, that is the question,” Henry muttered as he watched the program complete its run with no matches. He stared at the email icon on the bottom left of the screen. He thought about the file Dom had sent him about the present incarnations of the angels.
“Oh, what the hell.” He double-clicked the icon.