"Hell's Bells" rang out from somewhere below her. She reached into the slim pocket of her dress and pulled the cell phone out, flipping it open.
"It's probably my friend," she muttered to Athan. She glanced his way before turning her back on him. She took several more steps away from the demon before speaking into the phone.
"Hello?" Her voice was cautiously quiet.
There was a click. Then, a bored-sounding woman's voice droned over the phone:
"This is an emergency call from the Office, Universal Security Department. You will be connected momentarily to General Banner. This line is protected and neither your thoughts nor our end of the conversation can be heard except by the intended parties, as long as you keep the phone to your ear. Please remain on the line."
"What? I don't understand."
The voice droned on, "Listen very carefully to everything that General Banner says to you. Please hold now for the General."
There was another click, and then a loud, authoritarian voice blasted at her through the phone.
"VIRTA!"
She nearly dropped the phone from shock.
"Y-yes?" Her voice was tiny.
What was this about? She was getting a call from one of the top brass at U-Sec?
Of course! They knew Athan was with her. She began to sweat.
She stole a glance back at Athan. He wasn't paying attention to her or her phone call at the moment. He looked busy scanning the streets and the sky, pacing.
The bossy voice came through the phone again.
"Open Code 15!"
There was a click.
The dry female voice responded, "Code 15 activated, sir. You may begin your commands."
Before Virta could absorb what this was all about, the General spoke again.
"Angel Virta, run Soldier Program, Code 15."
Confusion and fear swept through her as his words sunk in.
"W-what did you say?" she squeaked.
No response. There was static all through the phone line.
Then she realized the static was not in the phone, but inside her own head.
"Sir," she called out, panic rising, "what's going on?"
But he no longer talked to her as though she were a living being. All his words were commands and activation codes that made no sense to her. At least not to her conscious mind.
But the chip in her brain was picking it up just fine.
She felt pulses of energy and molecules of heat zinging around inside her, slowly at first, but picking up speed. She gasped at the painful, strange sensations.
Her mind sought answers.
Code 15.
It was not something she'd thought about in nearly a year.
Office workers were required to attend Department meetings, and one day each year they held a mandatory meeting on Security.
Virta had not looked forward to the meeting. It was a whole day of sitting in a conference room, listening to agents from U-Sec talk to them about dull policies, procedures, and warnings. Boring stuff.
Virta and Mick sat together, nibbling on Sweets and drinking Substance. Mick actually listened to the Instructor and scribbled down notes, but Virta sat doodling dirty pictures.
She elbowed Mick to take a look at her latest creation, and grinned with satisfaction as he tried to hold back a laugh. Crimson stained his cheeks.
Keeping his eyes on the Instructor, Mick pushed Virta's drawings underneath the folder in front of her... out of the instructor's watchful line of sight.
Virta tried to stop him, but knocked over her Substance. It spilled all over the pages of the open U-Sec folder. The Instructor was there in a second, glaring down at her, irritation all over his face.
"What's the problem?" he growled.
"I spilled my drink."
The Instructor rolled his eyes. "I can SEE that. Maybe we should stop allowing food and drinks in the conference room. What do you think, Virta?"
She lowered her eyes, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, Sir. I won't do it again."
He finally walked away, shaking his head, still talking about policy while she dabbed at the mess.
She pulled out her artwork and continued embellishing it, tuning out the rest of his dull presentation.
But Virta HAD paid attention when they talked about the microchips.
The chips were implanted in all newer angels. U-Sec reminded them each year what the capabilities and uses of the chips were... to prevent any unauthorized exit from Heaven, for tracking purposes, to diagnose any mental or medical related problems (though rare with angels, they could happen), and miscellaneous purposes as needed.
The instructors had been careful to explain about Code 15's: They were only used in military personnel, only in emergencies, and only then in the intermediary zone between Heaven and Earth. All angels except full-time and reserve soldiers had the code 15 capability disabled.
Mick had whispered to her that it had taken a lot of pressure from angel rights groups to get that code disabled from non-military personnel chips. She'd been paranoid anyway, until Mick checked her file and assured her that her chip actually had been disabled for 15's. His chip was fine as well. She'd been so relieved...
"...It's a go!" screamed the General into her ear.
Virta bit her lip and glared into the phone. She couldn't make out what he'd been saying to the chip in her head. It didn't matter. He had already gotten through to the part of her he needed.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked.
But she knew exactly why they were doing this. It was just that her mind couldn't accept it. This couldn't really be happening, could it? General Banner had initiated the command which would take control of her body away from her, and turn her into a weapon of mass destruction.
She heard a strange clicking sound in her brain, and strobes of light began to flash by her vision. It became harder to move her body.
She did not consent to this. Her will had been bypassed so they could use her as a suicide bomber - to kill the dangerous demon that now stood mere feet away from her. And her damned angelic body has no choice but to follow through.
All of her power was being summoned, harnessed to detonate. Even the self destruct of a weak angel like herself would let loose the equivalent power of small tactical nuclear weapon. It would produce a supernatural, supersonic shock wave and extremely high temperatures, incinerating all celestial life within the blast radius of just under two miles. She would die instantly, of course.