Hellboy: On Earth as It Is in Hell Read Online Free Page B
Author: Brian Hodge
Tags: Fiction, General, Science-Fiction, Media Tie-In
places, this one was on the side of the angels."
"If there's any truth to the old stories, seraphim are a breed apart. I've heard them called Heaven's stormtroopers. Never saw one, but I've always gotten the idea they do what they're told without a lot of questions. Not that it's going to make you feel any better, but the last I'm aware of them unleashing this kind of firepower was in Sodom and Gomorrah."
And the question hung in the air unasked, because neither of them had to: What could possibly have come along, after upwards of 3500 years, to pose enough of a threat that would warrant this level of response?
"Dresden." Kate's voice, behind them. He hadn't seen her rejoin them. "You forgot Dresden, Germany. Near the end of World War Two."
"That's just a rumor. Not even a convincing one," Hellboy said. "One Allied phosphorous bomb for every two people? You don't need seraphim with that kind of payload raining down."
"You're looking at it wrong. If it's true, Dresden wasn't cause-and-effect. It was opportunity seized," Kate said. "Where better to blend in and cover their tracks?"
On this one, at least, they could agree to disagree. Kate Corrigan definitely knew her business...and if it was weird, well, then it was her business. A fortyish woman with a tousled bob of sandy hair, she'd been consulting for the bureau for the past dozen years, when she wasn't teaching history classes at N.Y.U. Or hunched over a keyboard. The woman wrote books almost as fast as Abe could read them--sixteen at last count, her own ever-growing shelf in the folklore and occult section.
She'd beaten him and Abe here by a full day. Had been on some unspecified sabbatical at the Paulve Institute in Avignon, France, when the summons came in that the Vatican, of all places, was asking for a discreet outside opinion.
"It's taken awhile, but I'm finally getting somewhere with these guys," she said. "You know, I'd hoped that maybe, just maybe, this place would've been different...but no, you show up and it's the same as any other bureaucracy. They beg for your help, they tell you how glad they are you're here...and then it practically takes a case of whiskey and a pound of laxatives to get the relevant truth out of them."
"A lovely image," Abe said.
And Kate was beaming. She didn't do that often. She frowned, she scowled, she had a whole closetful of thoughtful looks, but she hardly ever beamed . Especially in places like this, where death was still so fresh.
"What's going on here, Kate?" he asked.
"The confirmation of a legend," she said. "They just gave up what that hit squad must have been after: the Masada Scroll."
BUREAU FOR PARANORMAL RESEARCH AND DEFENSE
Field Report Supplement EU-000394-59supA
Date: October 16, 1996
Compiled by: Dr. Kate Corrigan
Classification: Restricted Access--Need To Know Subject: Vatican Secret Archives Document s/00183/1966
Although the Masada Scroll has for the past thirty years been a quiet but persistent rumor, impossible to substantiate, its existence has finally been verified by a physical artifact. At this early stage the BPRD cannot take a position one way or another on its authenticity, only cite the claims made about it.
Background: According to the only known contemporaneous first-century source (The Jewish War, by Josephus Flavius), Herod the Great, King of Judea, built the fortress known as Masada in the fourth decade B.C.E. Installed as a puppet ruler by the Romans, Herod was reviled by the Jewish populace, and thus intended Masada to be a personal refuge in the event of an uprising.
For strategic purposes, the location was well chosen. Herod utilized the natural features of a remote mesa and cliff structure located at the western end of the Judean Desert. The eastern side plunges hundreds of meters straight into the Dead Sea. At the western side, the plateau is still roughly a hundred meters above the desert floor. The pathways up were few, openly exposed, precarious to navigate, and thus could
"If there's any truth to the old stories, seraphim are a breed apart. I've heard them called Heaven's stormtroopers. Never saw one, but I've always gotten the idea they do what they're told without a lot of questions. Not that it's going to make you feel any better, but the last I'm aware of them unleashing this kind of firepower was in Sodom and Gomorrah."
And the question hung in the air unasked, because neither of them had to: What could possibly have come along, after upwards of 3500 years, to pose enough of a threat that would warrant this level of response?
"Dresden." Kate's voice, behind them. He hadn't seen her rejoin them. "You forgot Dresden, Germany. Near the end of World War Two."
"That's just a rumor. Not even a convincing one," Hellboy said. "One Allied phosphorous bomb for every two people? You don't need seraphim with that kind of payload raining down."
"You're looking at it wrong. If it's true, Dresden wasn't cause-and-effect. It was opportunity seized," Kate said. "Where better to blend in and cover their tracks?"
On this one, at least, they could agree to disagree. Kate Corrigan definitely knew her business...and if it was weird, well, then it was her business. A fortyish woman with a tousled bob of sandy hair, she'd been consulting for the bureau for the past dozen years, when she wasn't teaching history classes at N.Y.U. Or hunched over a keyboard. The woman wrote books almost as fast as Abe could read them--sixteen at last count, her own ever-growing shelf in the folklore and occult section.
She'd beaten him and Abe here by a full day. Had been on some unspecified sabbatical at the Paulve Institute in Avignon, France, when the summons came in that the Vatican, of all places, was asking for a discreet outside opinion.
"It's taken awhile, but I'm finally getting somewhere with these guys," she said. "You know, I'd hoped that maybe, just maybe, this place would've been different...but no, you show up and it's the same as any other bureaucracy. They beg for your help, they tell you how glad they are you're here...and then it practically takes a case of whiskey and a pound of laxatives to get the relevant truth out of them."
"A lovely image," Abe said.
And Kate was beaming. She didn't do that often. She frowned, she scowled, she had a whole closetful of thoughtful looks, but she hardly ever beamed . Especially in places like this, where death was still so fresh.
"What's going on here, Kate?" he asked.
"The confirmation of a legend," she said. "They just gave up what that hit squad must have been after: the Masada Scroll."
BUREAU FOR PARANORMAL RESEARCH AND DEFENSE
Field Report Supplement EU-000394-59supA
Date: October 16, 1996
Compiled by: Dr. Kate Corrigan
Classification: Restricted Access--Need To Know Subject: Vatican Secret Archives Document s/00183/1966
Although the Masada Scroll has for the past thirty years been a quiet but persistent rumor, impossible to substantiate, its existence has finally been verified by a physical artifact. At this early stage the BPRD cannot take a position one way or another on its authenticity, only cite the claims made about it.
Background: According to the only known contemporaneous first-century source (The Jewish War, by Josephus Flavius), Herod the Great, King of Judea, built the fortress known as Masada in the fourth decade B.C.E. Installed as a puppet ruler by the Romans, Herod was reviled by the Jewish populace, and thus intended Masada to be a personal refuge in the event of an uprising.
For strategic purposes, the location was well chosen. Herod utilized the natural features of a remote mesa and cliff structure located at the western end of the Judean Desert. The eastern side plunges hundreds of meters straight into the Dead Sea. At the western side, the plateau is still roughly a hundred meters above the desert floor. The pathways up were few, openly exposed, precarious to navigate, and thus could
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