Terminal (Terminal trilogy #1)

17: Okay

"Oh, I do hate it when you prove me right," I said, standing up. Rhamiel ignored me, still chattering quietly with Percy in angelic.

Blake leaned over Jamie. "You know, I don't think she's dead yet."

I frowned. Her body was still twitching a little bit, bleeding out. "Going to be soon."

Percy noticed us. "Don't touch her," Now that he was free from threat, he looked a lot weaker, and took a few haggard steps towards us. "Let her die."

"You know, I thought we were getting pretty close to a no-death type agreement before. Is that off?"

"Obviously." Percy snarled, and I stepped back. "You freed her. Can't have you getting into anymore trouble, so Rhamiel, tie them up."

"Hey, I sent Rhamiel in to help you, remember?" I took a few more steps back.

"You sure enjoy using me as a bargaining chip." Rhamiel started to tie a particularly panicked Blake's arms and ankles. I noted with some victory he was a lousy knot tier, but I that only meant a slightly higher chance of escape. At this point, I wasn't sure if I- well, not me, but everyone else- was going to die here. If that was the case, well, I'd probably not want to leave to Earth so quickly, if only to see what sort of new government would arise.

The only way out was to hope the two angels turned on each other, or that maybe someone from the city would realize none of The Few had made it out of their last meeting.

As Rhamiel tied me up, I whispered, "You still owe me."

He answered at full volume, so Percy could overhear. "I do still owe you, and I am paying my debt now, by consciously not killing you. You are fine, and it is my whim."

"Don't you have a conscious that should be... not doing this?"

"If I was going to double cross for you, I surely would not be telling you now, would I?" Rhamiel grinned sweetly. "You do not like me. I do not care for you. We are a means to an end, and in this case, that end may just be your death unless you become compliant."

"Ariem," I hissed.

He blinked blankly at me for a second, clearly a little disturbed I knew a word of angelic. Then he finished tying up my legs and got up, redrawing his spear and standing boldly at Percy's side. Still eyeing me.

There was more angelic muttering between the two of them as they worked on the computer. Percy was leaning on the side wall, clutching his wound and grimacing, and he instructed Rhamiel in setting up a link between the camera phone and the laptop. Then, using the wall phone, Rhamiel called up Hell's television station.

"Hello," He said, "I am the angel Rhamiel of the most holy host of angels, the once and promised future leader of the fifth squadron; previously led by the power that was Catiel, before he met his end by my own hands, may he rest in solace for the rest of days, and I'm here to call in a hostage situation. Yes, I'll hold."

He dragged Glenn out first, taking a moment to bash her nose in before having her sit down in a chair in front of the camera phone.

"Hello? Oh, hello. Yes, this is Rhamiel of the most... oh right. Okay. Okay." He was still trying to send the feed from a laptop to the news station, and Percy frowned impatiently. Rhamiel leaned over, and announced to everyone in the room, "They're connecting me to the live show right now."

Glenn was visibly shaking. "Hello?" Rhamiel said again, "Yes. Oh, am I on? On live? Alright. So, I was hoping you could- I'll answer questions in a moment- yes, yes, no, yes- look, I have a video feed that needs to be live. Can you do that? Huh, what?" He covered the receiver and leaned over to Percy again. "What's a web address? They want me to harness it. Achieve a link of some kind."