Hammer of Angels: A Novel of Shadowstorm by G. T. Almasi Read Free Book Online Page A

Dad wasn’t conked out, he’d put one of his arms around me and mumble, “Hi, Hot-Shot,” and gently run his fingers through my hair. One morning I fiddled around with his watch and found a tiny button that made the whole face light up. I spent the next little while flashing Morse code messages to myself.
    My attention returns to the cab I’m riding in with Brando. I put the sheet of paper on my lap and hold my dad’s big watch over it. When I press the light button, the watch face casts a bright glow onto the brief. It’s our mission communication codes. My partner nods appreciatively. I make an I told you so face at him, then memorize the comm codes we’ll use once we’ve been inserted into England.
    CORE PUB-GG-2399
    BusinessWeek
, September 12, 1978
    Greater Germany’s fiscal dominance
    fueled by their “peculiar institution”
    Joseph Florein of Goldman Sachs built his career as an investment banker with carefully thought-out strategies and a down-to-earth communication style. His direct and honest personality has led to his second occupation as a financial news commentator for
60 Minutes
. He’s a voice of calm reason in good times and in bad, but there is one thing that makes the normally imperturbable financier raise his voice.
    â€œYear after year, financial analysts prattle on about the strength of Greater Germany’s economy,” Mr. Florein said last week. “Yes. Their economy is strong because it’s based on slavery!’”
    Mr. Florein spoke at a fund-raiser for Free for All, a charitable organization he founded to abolish slavery in Greater Germany. Mr. Florein feels that Free for All should appeal to every American citizen, whether they are Jewish or not. “Our country suffered through slavery’s shame,” he said. “When we abolished it in 1863, we were the last industrialized nation to do so. How can any American sleep at night knowing that across the Atlantic, our ally holds millions of her citizens in bondage?”

07
    Nine days later, Sunday, February 1, 1981, 5:15 P.M. GMT
    Between Haxby and Strensall, Yorkshire, Province of Great Britain, GG
    The English night has tumbled in on us like a moldy ceiling. I light up Dad’s watch. It’s barely after five o’clock.
    â€œI can’t believe it’s so dark already,” I comm.
    â€œYeah, I know,” Brando comms back. “We’re a lot further north than places we’ve been before.”
    Zurich—
    DISMEMBERED
    â€”I’m covered in blood.
    BURNED
    I shut my partner’s eyes and—
    GLISTENING
    â€”scream my heart out.
    I inhale deeply through my nose, then exhale slowly through my mouth. Doctor Herodotus has me do this when I have these death flashes, or “intrusive thoughts.” Dr. H said they would go away after a while, but it’s been five months and I swear they’re getting worse.
    Brando knows he hasn’t actually been in those places with me, but his hypnotically implanted memories are so vivid he can’t help saying “we” instead of “you and my dead brother.” When this happens, my mind flashes through a gruesome picture gallery of Trick’s mangled corpse.
    I look at Brando and continue my slow breathing. It helps me to see him all in one piece and not a smoking, mutilated mess. Naturally I think he’s attractive—he’s Trick’s twin—but I can’t fall for Patrick again. It’s weird enough already. He
is
handsome, though, especially with longer hair.
    Trick always got supershort haircuts, but it turns out the Patricks are blessed with great hair that gets wavy when it’s longer. Brando has let his hair grow out for this mission so he’ll look more like a civilian and less like a government agent. It’s gotten so long he has to push his bangs out of his face as we stare across a dusky field at a German passenger train chugging toward the