trying.” Sapphira laid a hand on Ashley’s cheek. A ripple of fire rode along Sapphira’s forearm and crept into her hand. “You have been trying all your life.”
Ashley closed her eyes. Heavenly warmth radiated into her cheek and flowed throughout her body, loosening her muscles and draining her tension.
“Relax, Ashley, and let Jehovah work through you. Faith asks that you let his power flow, not your anxiety, not your fears, and not your sweat. His power.”
Ashley took a deep breath and opened her eyes. “Thank you. I think I understand.”
“Psst!” Gabriel waved at Sapphira. “We have company!”
Ashley and Sapphira swung around. A man wearing an old tunic walked into the control room, his hands behind him. “Well, well,” he said, smiling, “this is a surprise indeed!” He bowed toward Sapphira. “I never thought I’d see you again, Mara, but I must say, I am truly delighted. Your extremely long life is a grand tribute to our success in genetic technology.” He drew near and extended his hand toward her head. “If I may, I would like to see if”
Sapphira swatted his hand away. “You may not see anything, Mardon.”
Gabriel stepped in front of Sapphira and pushed Mardon away.
Mardon’s sandals slipped on the tiled floor, but he backpedaled quickly and regained his balance. As he bent over to adjust his sandal, he laughed nervously. “The winged boy is chivalrous, Mara, but I only meant to check your scalp for deterioration. Our quest for knowledge is never over.”
Sapphira’s voice sharpened. “I am Sapphira Adi, a daughter of Jehovah. I am not your science experiment anymore.”
Mardon held up his hands. “Very well. I meant no harm. But if you are a daughter of Jehovah, as you call him, you should welcome my pursuits. We will see your father face-to-face very soon.”
“We figured out what you’re up to,” Sapphira said, “and it’s crazy. Do you think Jehovah can’t stop you?”
“Stop me?” Mardon chuckled. “God has long wanted to fellowship with man, but my father and I failed to bring God and man together in Shinar because we insulted him by assuming that a physical tower could reach to his glory. Now that I have identified the dimensional barrier separating us, I am eliminating it. Far from stopping me, this is exactly what he wants.”
Ashley read the photometer as she scanned the final brick. “If God wanted that to happen, he would have broken down the barrier himself.”
“Nonsense,” Mardon replied. “Elohim uses men to carry out his work. He called a man, Jesus, to break down the spiritual barrier, and now he has called another man, me, to break down the final, physical barrier.” He peered at Ashley’s work. “What are you doing with my bricks?”
She scowled at him and shoved the brick to the side. “A science experiment.”
“The bricks are worthless now,” Mardon said, wagging his finger at them. “They have no power over the Nephilim.”
Ashley waved the photometer at him. “They told me what you’re up to. All that radiation and magnetism over the years turned your giants into power generators. They are capable of making a gravity void that can rip the dimensional boundary.”
“Quite right, and due to my genetic engineering, they are immune to the electrical charges as well as weapons like Excalibur. When the grid is fully maximized, Heaven and Earth will be joined in one dimension, and I will ascend my new stairway to God’s kingdom.”
Sapphira stalked toward him. Flames mixed in with her snowy hair, making her look like a walking torch. “And you’ll get struck dead for your arrogance.” She pressed her finger into his chest. “Then God will flick you back to Hades with his fingertip. Everything you’ve done will be destroyed.”
Ashley pointed the photometer at Sapphira and shifted the dial through the different wavelengths, mentally noting every readout. The numbers looked familiar, very familiar. Shuffling the new data through her mind, she combined them with the readings from the bricks, crunching numbers madly until it felt like her brain was about to explode. Suddenly, everything clicked—the bricks, Sapphira’s flames, Mardon’s numerical code in the scroll—it all made sense.
“Death no longer has any power,” Mardon said. “I have already united Hades and Earth. The dead are now alive again and spreading across the globe.” Mardon pushed her away with a condescending tsk, tsk. “How little you understand. The first covenant was one of laws, which people could not obey because of their blindness. They could not see Elohim, so they had no concept of the Lawgiver.