God War by James Axler Page B

down there, maybe more. We can’t take them all on.”
    Grant stared at her. “I don’t know a lot about all this stuff,” he said, “but I do know that when Tiamat ’s involved, bad things happen.”
    “I thought the ship was dead,” Rosalia stated angrily.
    “If I’ve learned one thing about the Annunaki it’s this,” Grant told her grimly. “Things die only to be reborn. And when they come back, they come back worse than ever.
    “We have to stop him.”
    “Okay,” Rosalia agreed reluctantly. “Then we figure out a way. I’m not going out there with you, all guns blazing against a whole fucking army, hoping that’s somehow going to do the job.”
    Grant nodded in agreement. “Always a way,” he said. “Just have to figure out what it is.”
    Below them, the vast, ragtag army of Ullikummis stormed through the streets to the southwest of Tiamat ’s skeletal structure, their chants echoing from the hard walls around them.
    “We are stone,” they called. “Stone is strength.”
    They reminded Rosalia of locusts, the way they swarmed across the wings of the fallen spaceship.

Chapter 5
    The armies were massing elsewhere, too.
    Halfway around the world, on the Pacific Coast of the old United States, Lakesh stood on the balcony of the temporary Cerberus base and sighed. Beside him, a beautiful samurai woman of petite stature waited for the Cerberus leader to take everything in.
    The pair stood on the wooden balcony that ran right around the single-story structure, its steeple roofs and the railings of the balconies painted a bright, festive red. The woman was called Shizuka and she was the leader of the Tigers of Heaven, a position that placed many great responsibilities upon her shoulders. Dressed in the supple leather armor that she preferred, Shizuka was a warrior born, and she could outmatch any of the warriors in her team. She wore a katana sword in an ornate sheath at her belt, along with a shorter wakizashi blade nestled close to her back. Her black hair was cut in a long bob, the tips of which trailed down to brush her shoulders, and she had peach-tinted cheeks and rose-petal lips beneath the pleasing almond curves of her dark, attractive eyes.
    The building where Cerberus had set up shop belonged to Shizuka, and it had been in her family for many generations. Surrounded by several acres of carefully manicured gardens, the building served as a lodge or winter palace, which her predecessors had visited for rest and relaxation. A tiny square garden stood at the rear of the property, dotted with winding paths and a simple water feature whose constant shushing sound added to the sense of tranquillity engendered by the flowering herbs that colored its carefully tended borders. Beyond that lay the vast lawns that stretched off toward the sea on one side and out to an untended private road at the other. A high wall ran along this side with a long, steel gate. Made up of a line of vertical bars painted the same red as the balcony, the gate stood more than eight feet in height and ran to a width of twelve, wide enough to let a vehicle like a Sandcat through. A simple sentry box stood to one side of the gate, located within the grounds themselves, where the operator could open the gate for visitors. The gate operated via an electromagnetic lock, which sealed it shut when not in use.
    Out there, beyond the gate, Lakesh could see four men waiting. Pacing back and forth like caged tigers, the men wore heavy fustian robes like monks’ habits, the hoods pulled low to obscure their faces. Lakesh knew just who—or what—they were. Firewalkers, the agents of Ullikummis.
    “Our jackals are getting closer,” Shizuka said, her tone betraying no emotion.
    “Yes,” Lakesh agreed, staring at the gate through a set of binoculars. Behind him, Ryochi, the Tiger of Heaven warrior who had brought him to meet Shizuka, waited patiently, his pose as still as an ancient tree. “First there was one. Now four.”
    “Six,”