Page 104 of Concluded
“You’d be surprised how few people look up.We were pretty high, so anyone who saw us likely assumed I was a large bird.”
“Oh.”Dee leapt forward to press the elevator button.“And how could this Keaton guy tell that bad guys were coming this way?”
“He’s an empath—a strong one.He’s familiar with the emotional signature of these people because he encountered one before.”
“Hedestroyedone,” Achilles pointed out.“He and Owen.”
The elevator doors opened and they piled in.“Right,” Dee said.“He was the guy who spoke up during your speech.The jumper cable.”
Soon they were in the lobby, filled with the roar of conversation.People stood in small clusters or milled around.Ish and Tenrael, wings spread, flanked the front doors like strange and threatening statuary.
“Are you ready?”Charles asked Dee immediately.“I know you haven’t had much time to rest.”
Dee clapped his hands briskly.“I’m good.Let’s do this.”
Ralph leaned close to Achilles and whispered something that sounded a lot likemagic dick.Achilles pointedly ignored him.
It occurred to him then that the general mood in the room was… eagerness.A tinge of anxiety, but no more than that.They were like a team ready to play in the national championship: keyed up, optimistic, and ready to go.He hoped that carried through after everyone was subjected to the ibbur possession.
There was a bit of shuffling as people took their positions.Abe, Dee, and Achilles stood near a wall facing the crowd.Charles was nearby, but he was clearly willing to let Achilles run the show.Keaton stood close to Tenrael and Ish, looking resolute.
Achilles spoke loudly into the sudden silence.“Gods, I’m proud to be one of you.”Then he pulled something from his pocket.He’d retrieved the item from his desk drawer while Dee was admiring theWar of the Worldsposter.“Here’s your charm,” he said to Dee, holding it out.
“Your Bureau badge?”Dee asked, eyes wide.
“One of them.The other… I don’t know what happened to it.Ashley Dunn probably took it.”
“It’s going to disintegrate when you make your wish.”
Achilles smiled.“I’m hoping it’ll add a little oomph to the whole thing.”
Returning the smile, Dee wrapped his hand around the badge, closed his eyes, and whispered the wish that they’d previously practiced.
He was quite a sight.His hair, which had seemingly grown longer in the past couple of days, stood out from his head in a wild halo.His lips were unusually red and full, possibly a side effect of their session in the office.He stood tall and straight, and although he was wearing a boring—and probably not very clean—Bureau exercise outfit, he might as well have been wearing flowing silk robes and a dazzling crown.He was clothed in power, and he was the most beautiful thing that Achilles had ever seen.
“Here.”As Dee returned the badge, a spark leapt between them.Achilles’ cock immediately hardened, despite its recent workout, and he didn’t give a shit whether everyone noticed.Let them see what Dee did to him.
Achilles took a few breaths.This time, he wasn’t nervous about public speaking.He simply wanted to make sure he did this right.
“I wish… that ibburs will come right now and possess everyone in this room who welcomes them.”
That was it.For several seconds, absolutely nothing happened.Before Achilles had time to fear that they’d failed, however, Abe called out something in Hebrew.A prayer, Achilles thought.And something happened to the atmosphere in the lobby.The large room felt… full.It was briefly hard to breathe, and then fluctuated very fast between frigid cold and stifling heat and back again.All of the marble on the walls and floor faded, looking like gray curtains with the light shining through, but remained solid to the touch.Achilles heard a cacophony of sounds: crying, laughter, conversation in dozens of languages, birdsong, waves crashing, bullets whizzing, animals roaring, engines revving, sirens blaring.The reek of death made him gag but was quickly replaced by the scent of a spring meadow and… his mother’s cooking?
Dee collapsed to the floor and lay on his side, eyes open and chest moving evenly.
Abe spoke again, voice broken.First in Yiddish and then English.“Oh, my darling Thomas.”
A few feet away, John fell to his knees.He looked much younger and healthier, and his face glowed with joy.“Welcome back, Harry.”
Others called out names as well, but Achilles didn’t catch them because something tickled in his brain and made his nerves tingle.He felt as if he were wearing too-tight clothes, as if he were a little tipsy, as if every scar on his body had suddenly reopened and then healed even more quickly.And oh gods, he was sostrong!
A familiar voice spoke inside his head.“This is quite a party you’re throwing, Spanos.”
“Bautista?”Achilles whispered.
“Santiago.First names, seeing as we’re sharing a body.”Santiago chuckled with Achilles’ throat and mouth.
“I am so sorry.The bear… and you… and I?—”
