Page 43 of Metatron
“She’s still alive,” Zilla replied. “The token I gave her is emitting.”
“Wait, you know where she is? Beam me to her.” He’d skewer the demon who dared kidnap his mate.
“I can’t. She’s been taken off-planet.”
A chill swept him. “She’s on a Hell scout ship?”
“Yes.”
“Where is it? Show me.” The air in front showed a zoomed-out view of the galaxy and a tiny dot moving rapidly from Earth toward the Hell behemoth. “Can we catch up before it reaches its base?”
“No.”
He had no hope of rescuing her, something he refused to accept. “What are the options?” He asked Zilla because he didn’t have a clue what to do. If this were just a random human, he would have felt bad and moved on. But this was Francesca, a woman he’d fallen in love with. Nothing, not the war with Hell, the mutiny with Heaven, mattered as much as her safety did.
“I can get you into Hell.”
He straightened from his slump. “Won’t they spot you and blast you to pieces before we get close?”
“My shielding and cloaking are excellent.”
He almost said, “Let’s go,” only to remember risking the cantorii meant possibly stranding his choir. The Atlantis would be leaving very soon. Probably sooner now that the scouts were in play. If he took Zilla and something happened…
If he didn’t and Francesca suffered…
“And you’re very sure she’s on that ship?”
“I am tracking her token.”
“Assuming they didn’t remove it from her.”
“They can’t. Not easily at any rate.”
“Explain.”
“It’s implanted inside her to avoid detection.”
“Hell’s got access to technology we don’t, so don’t assume anything.” He frowned at the moving speck. Was she really on board?
Metatron paced as his mind whirred. The demon who set the trap had to be Astaroth. A plot that complex required someone of intelligence and the ability to command a scout to carry it out.
If Francesca was aboard.
What if Astaroth wanted him to think she was? By now it was probably obvious to many that she meant something to Metatron. Add in the fact she was a big part of the defense against Hell and removing Francesca would strike a blow not just to their operations but morale. At the same time, his haring off to rescue her put not only him at risk but the cantorii as well, the latter being more important than a single angel. Hell’s scouts were fast, but they weren’t as efficient and valuable as Zilla. If Hell captured her… Earth would fall.
“I can’t be rash about this,” he muttered.
Zilla nudged. “You have to rescue her.”
“I will.” Because anything else wasn’t acceptable. But he had to be sure, one hundred percent sure, where she was first. “A few questions first if you don’t mind. When did you first detect the token once the dampening field disappeared?”
“When she got transported aboard.”
In other words, quickly, too quickly to remove the token.
“And there’s been no interruption in signal?”
“None.”