Mercury Revolts by Robert Kroese Page A

was
spotted in Milhaus,” said Rosenfeld. “There’s no telling where he might be
now.”
    “Well, if this is the only guy who knows how to put a stop
to Brimstone, we’ve got to take our chances.”
    “Whoa, I didn’t say that,” said Eddie. “I said I thought he
might know how the demons were kept out of D.C. I don’t know whether he’ll be
able to help with Brimstone, or whether he’ll even want to. Besides, Gary and I
have a lot of work to do here.”
    “What kind of work could be more important than preventing
the government from creating an illegal nuclear bomb whose only purpose would
be to commit a major terrorist attack?” Suzy demanded.
    “Look, we’re not activists,” said Rosenfeld. “We’re
journalists. We just gather information and post it online. We don’t have an
agenda.”
    “Of course you have an agenda!” exclaimed Suzy. “What’s the point
of any of this if you don’t have an agenda? What’s the point of exposing that
the U.S. government is overrun with demons if nobody does anything about it?”
    “You seem to have gotten over your skepticism,” Eddie noted.
    “Frankly,” said Suzy, “I don’t know what to believe. A few
days ago I suddenly realized that I was working on a secret program to build a
nuclear weapon, so apparently it’s time for me to reassess some things. I’m not
entirely convinced that you guys aren’t a little loony, but you seem to have a
better grasp of what’s going on than most people I’ve talked to lately. So if
you tell me there’s a guy in Milhaus, Texas, who might be able to help put a
stop to Brimstone, I say we go to Milhaus, Texas.”
    “We can’t just leave,” Rosenfeld protested. “We’ve got a
website to run. There are thousands of people depending on us for information.”
    “Yeah, more people hiding in their apartments not doing
anything about the secret coup that’s somehow taken place under all of our
noses. You know they have the Internet in Texas, right? You can update the site
from there.”
    Eddie and Rosenfeld fell silent. It was clear that neither
of them had any interest in leaving the apartment, much less traveling to
Texas.
    “Fine,” Suzy snapped. “I’ll go myself. I’ll find this
Mercury guy and we’ll put a stop to this.” She had hoped she might be able to
shame them into going, but neither of them took the bait.
    Rosenfeld handed her a BitterAngels.net business card.
“Email me if you find him,” he said. The card showed two angels, complete with halos, standing back-to-back, their arms crossed and frowns on
their faces.
    “Whatever,” said Suzy, pocketing the card. “I need to use your bathroom.”
    Eddie pointed to a room down a short hall and she stomped
off.
    She was washing her hands when she heard a loud crash from
the other side of the door, followed by the commotion of several men bursting
into the apartment and shouts of “On the floor!”
    Suzy ran for the one small window in the bathroom, and
struggled to get it open. It wasn’t locked, but it appeared to have been
painted shut. She pulled as hard as she could, but it wouldn’t budge.
    Another crash sounded behind her, and she realized someone
had kicked in the door to the bathroom.
    “Hands up!” yelled a gruff voice. “On your
knees!”
    Suzy sighed and held up her hands. But as she did so, she
noticed something odd: the paint had cracked all along the edge of the window,
and the window was slowly sliding up.
    “Hey!” yelled the man behind her. “Don’t…” He trailed off.
“What the hell?”
    Suzy risked a glance behind her, and immediately saw the
cause of the man’s consternation. The man was wearing full combat gear and
pointing an assault rifle at her, but the barrel had begun to droop, slowly
going limp before his eyes.
    “You’re getting older,” Suzy said. “Nothing
to be ashamed of.” And with that, she launched her upper torso through
the open window. Vertigo overwhelmed her as she took in the view of the