Three days is how long it takes everyone to agree there is no possible way to move forward on this op without Lilith’s help. Three days is also conveniently enough time for Blackwood to get another contract, explicitly leaving out the details of the devil on their side—but leaving in just enough to make the Department of Defense feel utterly helpless to stop what ever the fuck is going on in Iraq—giving everyone in the PMC a big payday to solve it.

  John is grateful for the shift, as much as he doesn’t trust working with a real, actual devil—a devil who snuck into his dreams to sap him of his life force—it’s the best they have to work with.

  Over those past three days they sat around the TOC brainstorming plans to deal with this threat only to come to the same conclusion every single night. Either they get Lilith's help, or they get authorization to nuke the site, which would remove it physically from the location but would only serve to piss the devil Bazel off, which was something they couldn’t risk, not with how easily Lilith got in.

  The religious leaders they contacted laughed them off, offered some prayers, and of the few who took the threat seriously, none could make the required preparations and get to Jordan in time and were—at best, a huge shot in the dark.

  According to Kids analysis of the data the spooks in the TOC were gathering, the rate of growth was so substantial that leaving things even an extra day at this stage could mean the difference between hundreds, if not thousands of lives lost. Just as they suspected, Lilith waited until it was too late and no other option was reasonable to make her appearance. When an entire country is at risk of drowning you’ll grab even a thorn covered stick to help you out of those waters.

  There is one part of all of this going in John's favor, and that over the days spent searching for other options, John’s been able to brainstorm some more gear with Kid in the workshop.

  Together they modify Kane’s gauntlets and Blackbeard’s hammer to allow them more fine tuned control. They also draft up changes to the helmets to allow NVG integration and thermal imaging, which would be invaluable for night ops.

  John works on a more personal project as well, a project Kid very quickly tries to name after some comic book character, though John quickly shuts that shit down.

  He would never admit it, but the conversation about who would win in a fight, Batman or Spiderman had him thinking. An unknown threat did in fact appear out of nowhere catching everyone entirely unprepared. A threat that could bypass their armor, heal from a bullet wound and teleport around without a care in the world.

  Frankly that scares the ever living shit out of him, and so he sets to making new weapons, and new armor. The weapon designs are incredibly complex, and lack the kind of finesse you see in a William’s rifle, but then again you can’t expect industry leading innovation in brand new fields and have reliability. John knows one thing for certain, and it’s that their traditional kinetic weapons are useless against these devils, not without Lilith's help at least. So, what use was reliability if it’s reliably fucking junk?

  John's new weapon platform is designed to deal with a pretty high level of unstable material he is desperately trying to stabilize. According to the meetings between Lilith and Blackwood over these past days, and slowly building info packets, he knows that devils derive power from souls, and contracts. He doesn’t know what the fuck a God Slayer rune is, or how to kill souls and he doesn’t know contract law but he does know energy—Its principles at least. According to Lilith, souls and contractors require energy, and ‘charge’ energy. Whatever this devil shit is, it functions according to the same laws of physics. It’s just new ‘material’ they don't have the tools to measure yet.

  One of the things John caught onto quickly in his conversation with Lilith is that every word she spoke was carefully thought out. Not once did she throw around a noun or a verb without a solid reason. That meant much like contract language, her verbal speech was deemed just as important and she called Nether ‘energy’ very specifically.

  Regardless of its specific name, energy is, by definition, “the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat and light.” With the definition of work in physics being, “energy transferred to or from an object via the application of force along a displacement.”

  While it’s a touch circular it means that there is a very good, and very likely chance that Nether, as a source of energy power, has to be exerted in line with the laws of thermodynamics. A 5.56 round traveling at 2800 feet per second exerted a great deal of force, yet Lilith and the monster in the basement didn’t try to stop it.

  There is only one reason for that. If they have the power to teleport and heal and do all manner of incredible things it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume they could stop the bullet if they wanted to. Kid himself attested to the bullet resistant nature of some other anomalies they fought in the past. All things in nature have a vested interest in conserving energy. This means it costs these anomalies less energy to heal from a wound, than to stop the bullet from its initial impact.

  They might have a good deal of energy stored up, and they can expend it pretty quickly, but that still costs something. Even a mosquito gets annoying after a while after all. It’s a gamble, but a gamble he’s willing to take for the sake of not relying on a fucking devil to get the job done.

  “This is pretty high level man.” Kid whistles, looking over the schematics. “You uhh, brushed up enough on your advanced physics?”

  “Not at all, but it’s as far as I can get. I've torn apart enough laser targeting systems and direct energy weapons, made and defused bombs and R&D’d some advanced weapons back in MARSOC enough to get close. You should see the shit they have off the coast.”

  “Yeah, no I’ve heard, but those are… you know... for shooting drones out of the sky, Reagan's Star Wars program sounds cool, but man is it still pretty impractical.”

  “I'm not looking to shoot drones though, I'm looking to shoot things the size of men. I'm thinking with several stages of optical lenses along the barrel here, we use your material to insulate and use heat sinks for mags on top, like a p90 and a battery system in the grip.”

  “Right, yeah I get that but what about atmospheric distortion. You and I both know that DEW’s like this are subject to get fucked up in... fog or rain or anything really.”

  “I was hoping you could fabricate an adaptive optic system. IR beam in the background feeds data to an onboard computer module that adjusts the lens to meet the required atmospheric conditions. Persistent energy output without worrying about atmosphere.”

  “Where the hell you gonna store an onboard computer in that thing?” Kid examines the weapon frame carefully, looking for any spare space.

  John flips the schematics to the helmet systems they all run. “You already do that. Link the rifle via quick detach sling mounted to the back.”

  “But the processing power is a hell of a lot more than the helmets can output.”

  “Then we link it all in stages with the rest of the armor system.”

  “And what, risk total weapon failure when you get shot in the chest?”

  “Against a devil? Our regular weapons already don’t work. If I'm getting hit in the chest it’s not with a bullet, and I'm already dead.”

  “You are one manic dude.”

  John smiles wide. “So, can you do it?”

  “Fuck yeah I can do it. Your drafting skills need some work and the form factor is fucked but I can make this happen. Your math is good, the theory is solid… if risky.”

  “When do you think you’ll have a working prototype?”

  “Uhhh. well for fighting devils we might need to make it quick. The fabricator works slowly but I can pause the other projects to focus on this.”

  “Then let's do that. I want something usable before our op.”

  “Sure thing, psycho.” Kid gives John a fist bump, the boy quickly gets to work.

  And damn is he quick. By the time Blackwood finalizes the contract with Lilith behind suspiciously closed doors, the prototype weapon and armor system are ready to go.

  “It's like... Robocop fucked the Punisher.” Spaz shakes his head, blinking a few times as he stares at the finished product.

  “I think you mean the Punisher fucked Robocop, Robocop is 100% the bottom,” Kid corrects.

  “Jesus...” Casper rubs the bridge of his nose. “You sure this thing works?”

  “It fires and functions,” Kid confirms, patting the full body armor on the shoulder.

  “At least the helmet covers your face, I always thought the exposed mouth was weird on Robocop.” Spaz adds.

  “The design isn’t final, it's a working prototype, we will refine it.”

  Casper shakes his head and nods towards the door out of the workshop. “Well, if we are all done ogling the newest toy, Blackwood wants us in the TOC to discuss our plan.”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “A plan to sell our souls to a devil,” Blackbeard grumbles.

  “He has assured me our souls remain comfortably intact,” Casper presses, leading the pack through the compound and down to the TOC.

  “Intact or unmolested?” Bronco tries to get a word in, but Casper quells the rising laughter.

  “Both... Now put on your work faces,” Casper orders, and everyone falls in line as they take the familiar path to the operations center, until they all stand around the star shaped table, nearly every set of eyes on Lilith as she hangs a leg over a knee in a new, pure black cocktail dress with a slit that goes all the way up to her hip.

  “Eyes here,” Blackwood demands, pulling everyone's focus from the woman at the front of everyone's minds. “We have our plan, and our contract.”

  Blackwood clicks the monitor on, displaying the same old picture of the town when they first went on this mission. It looks like there isn’t any new data coming in.

  “Firstly, the contract... It’s approximately 30 pages long and will be made available to all of you to read before you sign it. I cannot sign the contract for you, so each of you will be responsible for reading through the details and signing it yourselves. For those who simply do not care...” He looks to Kane, who nods his agreement. “The short of it is this. Lilith will use her... abilities to inscribe your weapons with the runes required to create lasting and substantial injury to the devil known as Bazel, its contract holder and its summoned creature. Using these weapons you will attempt to slay both Bazel’s contract holder—the man in the basement—as well as the entity created by Bazel’s contract holder. I am assured Bazel himself will arrive and when he does so, you will attempt to slay Bazel as well.”

  “And then we give over all the power to Lilith,” Bronco scowls.

  “I am getting there.” Blackwood eyes the large woman incredulously, waiting for the looks of scorn to die down before continuing.

  “Once Bazel has sustained substantial injury, Lilith will temporarily prevent his teleportation to hell and offer him a contract. During this time the persons holding Lilith’s contract will not under any circumstances attempt to interfere with her, Bazel, or impact that environment in any way that may impede her in her duties. After her contract has been signed, all of Bazel’s material possessions and contracts will be given to Lilith who, as per her contract terms, will void the contracts here on earth, and shoulder the punishment for voiding her contract with Bazel’s contract holder thereafter. As compensation will retain access to the souls gained in this dealing.”

  “And what happens if we break the contract?” Bella asks, her tone more curious than anything.

  Lilith shifts, eyeing Bella up and down with an equal curiosity. “if you sign this, your souls are only held in retainer for the duration of your contract with me. Should you break your contract then I gain your soul at the time of your natural death.”

  “Hmmm.” Bella crosses her arms.

  “And when does the contract end?” John cuts in.

  “The contract ends when either Bazel signs Lilith’s new contract, you die, 33 days pass, or a new contract is made to replace the old one,” Blackwood says coldly. “Any of those conditions ends the contract currently held.”

  “Fuck this, I am not signing anything with a devil,” Bronco protests.

  “You are welcome to sit this operation out then... I will not require any of you to sign, and I will not punish you for refusal. This is... deeply personal and very complicated. However, I do encourage all of you to read the contract thoroughly before signing.”

  Kane wastes no time flipping through the pages, skimming its contents and signing on the dotted line.

  “Fuck Kane are you always this reckless?” John asks, shaking his head as he examines the text more thoroughly.

  “I already signed my life away on a whim when I joined the military. I know I'm going to hell no matter what, might as well make good with a bombshell succubus so I have some good company when I get down there.” Kane winks, and fist-bumps Spaz who signed it just as quickly.

  The Aussie is far more thoughtful when it's just himself and Balla. the manic fucker is playing this casually now that everyone is around. I'd make him laugh if the situation wasn't so fucked.

  “Men...” Bella rolls her eyes.

  “What, that warrants an upgrade from boys?” John says in disbelief.

  “She is a bombshell, and we are all going to hell. I can't blame him.”

  John sighs and reads another paragraph over for a third time, watching idly as Bella, Casper, and Blackbeard seem equally as apprehensive as he is.

  That makes him relax. He trusts Kane in a gunfight any day of the week but if he jumps in head first everywhere like the Aussie does, his luck would fuck him sooner rather than later he reckons. The others being a little on edge help remind him that they are all still more or less in the same boat.

  Then Blackbeard signs his name and closes the papers, leaving that boat just a little lighter.

  “What are you thinking?” John asks, looking at Bella as she bites her lower lip.

  “Thinking it is stupid...”

  John shrugs reluctantly. “Well, it’s not like you and I have much to lose right?”

  “We are bodies drifting in an ocean, that doesn’t mean we should carve open the carotid artery for the sharks.”

  “What a pretty picture.” Casper chuckles.

  “It is your analogy,” She counters.

  John sighs, tapping his pen on the table in a steady rhythm. “It's accurate,”

  Kid pushes the contract away, and shakes his head. “Sorry, but I’m with Bronco on this one. I can’t sign.” he offers an apologetic smile to the others still deciding, and to Kane, Spaz, and Blackbeard who have already signed.

  “No problem Kid.” Casper claps him on the back as he steps away from the table.

  John stares at the lines of red ink and chuckles. How on brand.

  Why is this such a hard decision? The language of the document is certainly more specific and detailed but it hardly qualifies as worth stressing over. So long as he doesn’t try to actively sabotage Lilith they would solve the problem in front of them and be done with the devil at their doorstep. His soul is safe, there are no loopholes, and fuck, even if there is it isn’t like Kane is wrong. He’s going to hell anyway, might as well go with Lilith. Right?

  If it is all really this simple then why isn’t he signing? What is it that keeps his hand tapping the pen on its end as opposed to joining the one man he considers to be his brother?

  His eyes drift to Casper and Bella again, and he curses himself under his breath for realizing it a little too late.

  John gives a shit about what these two people think. That isn’t to say he doesn’t care about Kane’s opinion, but he knows the man is a brash, shoot first question later kind of operator. Bella and Casper are careful, logical, strategists and tacticians. Even in the middle of the two extremes Kane, Casper, and Bella offer, he finds himself respecting the thoughtfulness in the two people next to him.

  He isn’t signing, because he’s waiting for one of the two people he trusts to pick for him...

  John rubs his face, scratching at the stubble he started to grow in the new, more rugged fashion.

  He’s a leader damnit, not a follower, respect doesn’t mean be a sheep. He has to make the call for himself, even if he would have liked to have either one of them help make that decision feel a little better.

  Shaking his head, John signs his name on the paper and pushes the contract away with a long, drawn breath.

  “Awe, was it really that hard?” Lilith teases with a wink.

  “Fuck off,” John groans, noting the timing as Casper signs soon after.

  How ironic would it have been for Casper to be thinking the same thing, just a little too late. Meanwhile Bella still sits, flipping through the paragraphs one more time with no regard for either him or Casper.

  It makes him chuckle, feeling once again like a little kid as he realizes that Bella is certainly not considering anyone else’s options when it comes to this particular decision.

  Still, it’s only a few more minutes of quiet contemplation until she signs the contract, prompting Lilith to clap her hands and stand from the table. In that single motion the contracts dissipate.

  “Wonderful! If you would give me your weapons, I can inscribe them with the necessary marks and we can all be on our way to saving this little slice of your world.”

  With the reality of the situation settling in, John finds himself watching Lilith far more carefully, her expression never wavering, her eyes perpetually hungry. It makes him more uneasy now, even if her mere presence is enough to send shivers down his spine for a different reason altogether.

  Neither feeling appears to be dissipating anytime soon, not as they gear up, nor as Lilith marks the contract signers’ rifles with what is surely a provocative flair. There is no reason her fingers need to move around like that for carving runes but damn does she milk every second to get a reaction from the gathered mercs.

  In only a few minutes, John’s rifle and sidearm along with Bella’s, Casper’s, Blackbeard’s, Kane’s, and Spaz’s, are all engraved with perhaps a dozen or so runes along the barrels.

  John specifically requests that Lilith not touch his prototype energy weapon, specifically because he fully intends to test it out unmodified.

  “Risky, risky, if it doesn’t work the way you think it will, well...” Lilith muses, pouting slightly as she looks John up and down. “It would be a real shame to lose someone like you.”

  John rolls his eyes. “We will have five others keeping that thing busy. Besides, we need real world testing now. This is our one shot to try the weapon on Devils. If it fails, better to fail now and fix up later as opposed to waiting and having it do fuck all in a moment we need it.”

  “Could always just call me again, make a new contract for new runes.”

  “Yeah fuck that. After today's mission I’ll be happy to be done with you for the rest of my life.”

  “Awe, you really hate me that much?” she flutters her eyelashes.

  “You are a devil”

  “Well, you'd be right about most of them, but you can trust me, I’m one of the good ones.” she goes to walk her fingers up John’s arm but he pulls away

  “Fuck off.” John turns and tries his best to ignore her for the next 30 minutes as the team preps the remainder of their gear, kits up and readies themselves on the tarmac.

  Ignoring her is obviously impossible, but still, he tries.

  With a few more intentionally seductive flourishes, a circle is drawn into the ground with a flick of Lilith's wrist, the tarmac itself burning away in the shape of her teleportation circle.

  “Alright, inside,” Lilith urges, stepping into the middle herself.

  Everyone reluctantly does so as well, the scene being watched by a number of people as it unfolds, though none have the courage to get much closer than a few hundred feet.

  The ground erupts in flames, heat washes over John and for a fraction of a second his heart sinks, worrying that he just willingly stepped into a devil's circle and was about to get an eternity of suffering far earlier than he expected.

  Instead, what he got is worse.

  More fucking desert.