In the Midnight Hour
As hospitals go, Zurich Memorial seems pretty quiet at night.
Heinlen stares off into the murky shadows of his double room and gazes out at the vague outlines of the commercial buildings and high-rises hat loom beyond his windows. It’s a good time to think – despite the constant dull thumping inside his head. Andrea Vucic is snoring her adorable grunt and rumble – her “Poker Tell” of a very deep sleep. Her healing is proceeding well, thank God. Soon Heinlen will ask her to return to Hyne Haus in Sternenberg and take charge of the place. Give it that women’s touch it needs so desperately. Except in the kitchen, of course: the realm of Chef Lakas is sacrosanct. Hopefully, she’ll agree.
He almost nods off – but then hears it. A suppressed voice.
“Ahem…”
Heinlen reaches up to rub his temples as he responds.
“Hello, Gabriel…”
Archangel Gabriel keeps his snarky, veddy-veddy British public-school loquacity on low volume out of respect for Andy’s slumber.
“How’s the noggin? Looks like your coconut is throbbing…
That’s what happens when you go slumming for women – you get what you bargain for. Leeds really did a number on you. This human “Free Will” business sure sucks sometimes, eh?
But you’re on the mend now. Keep this one – Andrea Vucic – close by your side. She’s a keeper. Don’t be stupid – although I know that’s asking a lot of you.”
Although his head hurts, Heinlen welcomes the visit from Gabriel. The Hetman has many questions….
“Andrea Vucic is a Pagan. You can see the Kolovrat tattoo right there on her arm.
Is this your idea of Match Making?
What’s the story with all this Old Testament nonsense we Slavs had to swallow, anyway? You see what the Goddman Simeon Khazars are up to – how did this corrosive and fallacious Semitic poison get into the veins of white, Northern Europeans? They sold us a desert cult spin-off that preaches submission!!
Somebody somewhere must’ve really got paid off centuries ago. Who was it – Constantine? Why did Rurik cave in to such mythological rubbish? What do all of these Semitic fairytales have to do with me? Why should I – a Slav -care?
A Tribe of inbred idiots getting lost in the desert for 40 years lugging around some gold-encrusted talking box? Blood sacrifices? Some psychopath called Yahweh ordering genocides of whole populations and theft of their lands and livestock? Killing everybody who’s not in his favorite Tribe? People he himself – allegedly – created?
And this Celestial psycho-wingnut is “God the Father” of the good and beneficent Jesus Christ? I don’t buy it for one second!!
I’m thinkin’ the phraseology I’m searching for here is – this is all Bullshit!!”
Gabriel just smiles down at Heinlen. His voice is mirthful.
“I’m glad to see you are spiritually evolving.
Some of my best friends are Pagans – they live next door to me, you know. Lovely people. Good neighbors. And their outfits!!! And the parties they throw!!! Positively DIVINE – pun intended, of course!!! Freya is GORGEOUS!!! Have you seen the Bodices and fur boots she wears??? And can she strut!!!! VAA-VAA-VOOM!!!
Shall I convey your best wishes to Odin or Perun?
Listen to me: God’s mansion has many rooms, Hetman.
But on the rational side – I understand your mortal frustration with the ridiculous Dogma that’s been rammed down humanity’s throats. All this “turn the other cheek” business isn’t helpful in many circumstances…and even the Heavenly Host can’t stomach the “Chosen People” claptrap!! “Christian Zionists” – the ultimate oxymoron – are pathetic suckers when it comes to torturing Biblical fiction. Don’t listen to any of it!
It’s Theater of the Absurd.
Forget about those stupid old books. Old Testament? New Testament? They are compendiums of hysteria, fevered scribblings of hyperactive imaginations and bigoted authoritarians.
Conclusion?
Follow your heart, Heinlen. That’s where God is.
Well, then – I must be off! I don’t want to miss the next Asgardian bash!!! Perhaps I’ll dress up like a Viking, too!!!
TA-TA!”
And just like that, Archangel Gabriel is gone. Heinlen ponders: Did I just actually experience this or was it some kind of metaphysical brain fart?
Tradecraft
The next day Heinlen has a battery of medical tests – and gets an “improved” score – just barely. But at least he’s convinced his doctors that he will heal better at Hyne Haus in Sternenberg. He’s arranged for a fully staffed and stocked dispensary wing – with a live-in Neurologist and rotating shifts of nurses – to be waiting for them when they get back.
He plans to leave by Helicopter in the morning – and he’s taking Andrea Vucic with him. Even if Archangel Gabriels’ vision was a drug-withdrawal-fueled brain flatulence – he knows that “Andy” is a “Keeper”. And he’s not letting her go.
Heinlen returns to his hospital room to find Andrea Vucic, Per L’Enfant, Xen Chen, Dirk Fremd and Peter Xiang-Li sitting in a circle discussing how they can break Magda Jovanovic out of Camp Bondsteel – the Kosovo Black Hole. To say the conversation is spirited is a criminal understatement. It’s going hot and heavy.
Dirk Fremd was a Special Forces Lieutenant in the Armed Forces of Denmark and acting NATO Liaison for Security for a year; he knows firsthand how NATO works and what kind of challenge Camp Bondsteel presents. He’s not optimistic.
“First off – forget about a frontal assault. This place is Fort Knox. Even if we get out alive, Reaper Drones and Satellites will be tracking our asses every inch of the way. VARYAG forces are simply not trained or configured for warfare at this level. We’re a Guerrilla Group – a damn well trained and outfitted Guerilla Group – but NOT a frontal assault infantry column. We’re not backed up by tanks or an Air Force.
Secondly – where the Hell do we go? Return to Montenegro like an Army of Brigands that just terror-attacked the United States of America? I’m sure that will not enhance our standing in our new home.
Bottom line?
Forget the whole idea of a military operation. Even a Special Operations infiltration poses impossible challenges. We’re not fighting Vampyres here – or Simeon Khazars. We’re fighting the United States Army.”
Heinlen settles into his bed, assisted by Andrea, who sits perched next to him. The Hetman is fatigued from his tests – but raises his arms in a gesture to everyone that says – Is there anything else we can do? Any other ideas? Please continue….
Everybody just looks at each other, mute.
Except Peter Xiang-Li.
“This military idea isn’t just nuts. It’s BATSHIT nuts.
Everybody put your penises back in your pants and listen to me. There’s another way.
Mr. Kasper Wymm-Hoeg of Brussels…..
Who the Hell is Kasper Wymm-Hoeg? He’s a spy.
My Intelligence Contacts in China tell me that the NATO “Chief Bureau Analyst for European Union Trade Negotiations Protocol” in Moscow – an obvious CIA Mole – has just been arrested by the FSB, Russian Secret Police. He was trying to steal Russian military atomic propulsion tech for hypersonic missiles.
Kasper Wymm-Hoeg.
He’s charged with espionage. He’s in Jail. They caught him red-handed. No question. It’s a big scandal. NATO HQ in Brussels is embarrassed. And the Russians are furious.
Here’s the plan:
We reach out to the NATO State Security Director in Brussels and “request” they release into Russian FSB State Security custody one Magda Jovanovic, currently being held in the Kosovo Black Hole. What does Brussels get? Brussels gets their NATO spy – Kasper Wymm-Hoeg – back.
What does Russia get?
We make a secret side deal with Russia, clearing the way for them to own the entire 36th Floor of the finest and most iconic high-rise address in Zurich called the Prime Tower.
The Russian State Real Estate Directorate already has four of the eight multi-million-dollar suites on the 36th Floor. The VARYAG Real Property Assets Investment Trust has options on the other four. Russia has been pestering us for the past year about getting their claws into those remaining four suites. They want a secure floor entirely reserved for their exclusive GAZPROM clientele and OPEC Bigwigs that they wine and dine in Zurich during world energy sector Summits.
They want these options bad.
Once Russia gets the VARYAG options and owns the entire 36th Floor of Prime Tower in Zurich – they release Magda Jovanovic into our custody and we sheep-dip her with a new identity. Maybe we can even get the Serbian Orthodox Church to issue a humanitarian plea for Jovanovic’s release so she can help care her aged mother, who has cancer. Russia will demonstrate good-will to the world – and get their prize real estate. Everybody wins. Bingo.
It could work….”
Heinlen stares at his lawyer, impressed as all get-out. He looks at Andrea Vucic and smiles. Peter Xiang-Li has just made his day.
“Let’s dump those options and bring Magda home…”
Greetings From Aldebaran
The next day everyone is relieved to touch down on the Helicopter Pad at Hyne Haus in Sternenberg. In true Swiss fashion, however, every “T” has to be crossed and every “i” dotted in the paperwork before Zurich Memorial releases Heinlen and Andrea Vucic. Regulation “Discharge Exams” are performed on both patients before they board the chopper to make certain they can cope with air pressure changes in flight. It isn’t until daylight is fading when they finally lift off.
The Helicopter Pad at Hyne Haus is brightly lit by flood lights and is a welcome sight from above. Once they’re securely on tarmac, the doors pop open and Heinlen helps Andy off the rotorcraft. Everybody stands clear as the pilot guns the motors to head back to the Sternenberg Municipal Airfield where they park it.
The Chopper gains altitude and heads East to the next valley. Heinlen holds Andrea’s hand to steady her while his men – Per L’Enfant, Xen Chen and Dirk Fremd – collect their meager luggage to carry it back to Hyne Haus.
Suddenly, the air gets heavy and thick – oppressive – and there’s no mountain breeze blowing. The mercury vapor landing lights surrounding the Pad start flickering and dim appreciably. There’s a strange smell, like electrical circuits shorting – a sickening acrid, ozone waft that seems to descend on them from above. One light explodes with a loud “POP” and shower of sparks. Dirk Fremd yells out to everybody first.
“STOP! DON’T MOVE!! SOMETHING’S HAPPENING!! FEELS LIKE AN EMP!!! MAYBE AN ATTACK!!! DRAW YOUR WEAPONS AND LOOK SHARP!!!”
Heinlen scans the woods surrounding the Helicopter Landing Pad. An area to his left on the South side has a strange yellowish haze forming in it. The haze slowly starts to coalesce – to gather in a tighter, circular grouping. In a few seconds it becomes pulsating ball of greenish light, flashing on and off – then it becomes constant and almost blinding.
He’s seen this before.
The lighted circle expands outwards. The edge of the object now expressly defines itself – growing its circular perimeter into a radiating disc of multi-colored luminescence.
Heinlen remembers watching this happen with Simon Magus and Longinus at Paulus Hook in Jersey City years ago. He recalls the words he used when he later wrote down his observations on paper – he’s always been compulsive about scratching down note-book comments about his life. It’s a strange habit.
“…its interior becomes a scintillating evanescence of light ripples and waves…..kaleidoscopic light perturbations – resembling moonlight bouncing off a lake at midnight. Undulating like the vacillating filaments of time itself. The light variates and intensifies as it increases its diameter. The circular radius reaches about thirty feet across when……….”
And there it is. Heinlen sees before him exactly what he saw back in Paulus Hook. This is a visitation. He yells to everyone, waiving his hands –
“STAND DOWN!! STAND DOWN!!! HOLSTER YOUR WEAPONS!!! REMAIN STILL!!! NO SUDDEN MOVEMENTS!!!!
Vague outlines of three glistening anthropomorphic silhouettes take shape within the stormy swells of light inside the circle of brilliance. This is a light portal – a doorway to Earth. Andrea Vucic grips Heinlen’s hand tightly. She’s never seen anything like this before. But for the Hetman, it’s Deja Vu all over again.
Three ephemeral, bipedal entities slowly make their way onto the firmament in the eerie, absolute stillness of the Swiss countryside. Their images sharpen into focus as they emerge completely from the light portal. The one in the center is over ten feet tall. His companions to his left and right are eight or nine feet tall. As their long, hooded cloaks move Heinlen can glimpse underneath black leggings, impeccably tooled black leather footwear, military-style black tunics, belted at the waist and precisely tailored to fit their amply muscled torsos.
The visitors’ hands – more probably claws – are covered in large cuffed “Gages”, or combat gloves in the Medieval style, accented with dark metallic chain mail. The ten-footer in the center clearly has a SEAX blade in a sheath suspended from his broad tactical midriff belt. Their ample hoods creep back enough to reveal glimpses of prototypically Reptilian or – more accurately – Silurian – facial features.
Everybody’s consciousness is suddenly shattered by a lightning bolt of agony splitting through their brains as a hot, blinding flash grips their eyes and nearly collapses their knees underneath them.
Communication – or rather, thought transference – is commencing.
“I AM WATCHER GUARDIAN, ALARIC.
PEACE BE UPON YOU, HEINLEN.
I CONVEY SINCERE CONDOLENCES ON THE PASSING OF THE GREAT MAGUS, SIMON. HE WAS AN HONORABLE SOUL.
OUR DAUGHTER LEEDS AND HER OFFSPRING ARKAN SEND THEIR REGARDS. THEY REGRET ANY UNPLEASANTNESS YOU SUFFERED AS RESULT OF YOUR TIME TOGETHER AND WISH YOU WELL.
SHE WHO WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR HUNTING AND KILLING THE DEGENERATED ONE – THE SUBTERRANEAN BEING YOU CALLED YAKWAHE – HAS BEEN REHABILITATED BY US. WE HAVE ADOPTED HER.
AS IS OUR CUSTOM, WHEN WE EMBRACE ANOTHER INTO OUR COMMUNITY WE GIVE THEM A NAME.
SHE IS NOW CALLED LILITH.
LORD MASTER, DARK BROTHER OF THE MORNING STAR – AZAZEL – HAS ASKED US TO INTERVENE IN THIS WAR YOU WAGE AGINST THE VAMPYRES. HE AND VAMPYRE ARCHON TIBERIUS PROPOSE A TRUCE.
LILITH WILL ACT AS CHIEF MARSHALL OF ARCHON TIBERIUS. YOUR PAST FAMILIARITY WITH HER MAY ASSIST YOU IN REACHING AN ACCORD.
A PARLAY WILL BE ARRANGED BETWEEN LILITH, YOURSELF, YOUR SECOND-IN-COMMAND AND ARCHON TIBERIUS IN A NEUTRAL PLACE.
WE URGE EVERYONE TO EXERT THEIR BEST EFFORTS TO REACH AN ACCORD AND ABIDE BY IT IN THE FUTURE.
VAMPYRES HAVE EXISTED ON THIS PLANET SINCE WE, THE NEPHILIM OF OLD, LEFT IT. THE PACTUM VAMPYRUM ESTABLISHED THEIR PRIMACY OVER MANKIND EONS AGO. THIS MATTER WAS SETTLED IN THE DAYS OF E-DEN, WHEN THE GARDEN WAS TERRA SACRA. THE DIVINE PRESERVE.
AZAZEL – AS RIGHT HAND OF THE MORNING STAR – HAS DECREED THAT THE PACTUM VAMPYRUM MUST BE HONORED OR THERE WILL BE GRAVE CONSEQUENCES. HE ASSERTS HIS RIGHTS UNDER THE UNIVERSAL LEGAL DOCTRINE, PACTA SUNT SERVANDA.
AND SO IT MUST BE.
MAY YOU FARE WELL IN THESE ENDEAVORS, HEINLEN.
MUCH DEPENDS UPON YOUR SUCCESS.”
The figures slowly turn and walk back to the shimmering light portal, which now becomes brighter and more agitated anticipating their entry. They step inside and melt into its radiant, gleaming blister of energy. The light circle shrinks until it barely frames one solitary figure moving forward.
It’s wrapped in a white, hooded cloak. A cadaverously gaunt woman with white hair and a pallid, bloodless expression. Her jawbone and mouth are so desiccated that four freakishly large upper and lower canine teeth protrude in threatening splendor.
And it’s wearing a face from Heinlen’s past –
Ilse Sommerlund, MD.
An amoral, vicious Bitch – and now an amoral, vicious, bio-engineered Vampyre Bitch…..
….rebranded by The Old Ones as LILITH.
How eschatologically appropriate.
The End Times are truly upon us.
*NO PART OF THIS WORK PRODUCT IS AI GENERATED*
Copyright, 2026 – Jon Croft
www.bogironfoundry.com
Email: vlchek1@gmail.com
