Hell
Rising: Book Summary
The novel begins on board the Chromwell in the North Sea. The
Dragoons have a new leader, named Aubrey Quayle. He is approached by one of his
men and is told that it’s time and he heads to the main deck.
There he meets Morrigan and oversees the impending execution
of a man named Richardson. He is
accused of theft and attempted mutiny. The
condemned argues but it doesn’t do any good. Quayle has him strung up and hung
out over the sea, where he decapitates the man and then has it dropped into the
ocean.
Morrigan and he go into his cabin and she tells him about the
artifacts that the dead man had stolen. She
shows him a perfectly formed sphere. It is the Orichalcum, the firestone of
Irish legend. They have something to do with Atlantis.
Kane, Grant, Cotta and Brigid are in the Antarctic. They are
searching for a redoubt that is supposed to be a bioengineering facility, and
that it wasn’t officially part of the network, or part of the concept.
They eventually find it and enter. One of the first things they spot is a huge Nazi swastika
hanging on the wall. The facility
was, back in the 1960’s, cutting edge of technology, but now it’s just
primitive. As they look around they are shot at and they track the man down and
stop him. His name is Otto Skorzeny.
He wants to know if they have come for him. He makes comments
on their Aryan appearance and calls grant a derogatory name.
The former Magistrate loses his temper and goes to knock the Nazi on his
rear. But instead the Nazi appears
to have superhuman speed and strength and avoids the attacks.
They are able to drive him away.
Brigid informs them that the man was a high-ranking Nazi, the
creator of an elite commando force. Supposedly
he passed away in the mid 1970’s.
She informs them while she digs through the files and she
comes up with data on the Installation. It
was built in 1944 from an outpost. More
information is brought up about operation Paper Clip.
They decide that it’s worth the risks to explore the redoubt.
As they explore they find a mess hall as well as private
quarters. They also come across the medical facility and a number of coffins
that look like primitive cryonic tubes. Inside
the medical facilities they find the rotted remains of the heads of the
scientists that had been there, in order to be preserved. But it failed.
The deeper they go, the more they are certain that the barons
will not be able to use the facility to regenerate.
They also find a huge hoard of treasure that was stolen during the Second
World War and consider sending back a second team to recover it.
They come to a pit, and get the impression that it’s more
an arena than just a depression in the building. There is a horrible smell
coming from it. Just then the Nazi
Skorzeny appears and he is holding what looks like a control box.
He opens a door and from it emerges a Yeti.
The Nazi explains that it was cloned from the remains that the Germans
got from a monastery. It is totally
under his control. He manipulates
the control box and forces the creature to attack.
The fight is one of the most brutal that Kane or Grant has even been in.
During the fight it gets its hands on Cotta and tears his arm
off. Brigid is horrified but fires at him and manages to hit the control box,
stopping the yeti in its tracks. Skorzeny takes off and Brigid follows him.
They go into the redoubts power plant.
Here they fight and she is hit in the head, knocked for a loop. But
during the fight the Nazi has his hair caught in the gears of the machine and is
killed.
Grant does what he can to stabilize her while Kane heads for
the discarded medical kit. He is shocked to see that the Yeti is still alive,
after all the wounds that it sustained. He
is even more shocked to hear it speak to him. He apologizes for what he did, not
having been able to control himself. The Yeti dies.
Once they have Brigid stabilized they make a stretcher and
head out of the redoubt to the gateway in the outer Quonset.
During the jump back Kane finds himself in the grip of
another jump dream. He dreams that
he is Ka’in, and that they are together meeting an ambassador for the Formori.
It is an interesting historical dream for him.
But it changes pace and she meets up with Fand.
She beseeches him to come back to Ireland and help them.
She warns of an impending holocaust that will occur if Quayle and
Morrigan succeed in their plans.
When the jump ends Dafore takes them down to the medical
facility. She has to induce a coma
in Brigid because of her extensive injuries. She then tends to Kane and Grant,
treating their wounds. Grant heads
out and goes to his quarters but is stopped by Lakesh. The old man finally gets a brief description of what happened
in Antarctic.
Finally Grant is able to get back to his room and he sees
Domi sitting on the floor, naked as usual, skinning some rabbits she had killed.
He tells her what happened and that he’s sick of the sight of blood.
She leaves, in a huff and is quite angry.
Quayle is with Morrigan on the Chromwell.
They are talking about the Atlantis outpost and the history of the area
and what has happened after Strongbow Disappeared. He tells her straight of his
feelings to her but she turns him down. This
rejection causes him to snap and he drives her hard. He grabs her by the neck
and rips her clothing off and rapes her.
Kane is in pure agony from his wounds.
Even the pills that he got from Dafore don’t help him.
He is visited by Fand once again and she presses the urgency of him
returning to England. She leaves him alone.
Dafore shows up to check on him, and they talk about Brigid
and getting retrieving Cotta’s corpse. She tells him during the discussion
that she feels that she is nothing more than a glorified medic, so Kane calls
her Doctor, melting the ice between them. He heads to Brigid’s room and goes
to her computer, types in the word Atlantis and starts reading.
Later Kane meets with Grant, Lakesh and Domi in order to
discuss what he found in the files. They discuss a great deal of information on
Atlantis and other ancient civilizations and the connection to Fand.
They vote no regarding the journey to the UK, as it is far too dangerous
and none of them are in the condition to head over. But Kane says his instincts
push that they go and he’s going to go with, or without them.
Reluctantly Grant agrees to go and both head down to the
armory where they pick up replacement sin-eaters as well as grens and agree to
meet at the gateway at exactly twelve midnight to make the jump.
Before leaving Kane stops one more time to visit Brigid and
before he leaves, kisses her and asks her to come back to him.
Grant hears Domi’s knocks and lets her in. She demands to
know why he won’t give into her advances, and even goes as far as threatening
to go to whoever wants to be with her. He insists that it isn’t her, that
it’s him. She leaves, very angry.
She wanted to be part of their mission but is needed to go retrieve
Cotta’s corpse from the Antarctic.
Kane and Grant arrive in England, back in the wildroot
compound. The compound is deserted. They discover evidence of a hell of a fight
and manage to locate a motorcycle to transport them to New London. On the road
they are attacked by Celts.
They fight their way past the attacking Celts and soon come
upon another battle. The Celts are taking down a group of Dragoons.
Once again they are attacked and have the motorcycle blown out from under
them. The Celts are going to kill them when Fand arrives and calls them off.
They also meet with Phin Mac Cumhal Mal Trenmore, the
chieftain that they met a year before. Fand
explains that the last of the Dragoons in New London are gone and that they had
just finished taking the city. She
leads them into the battle-ravaged city, straight to the former Dragoon command
center. It turns out that the Cromwell left three days previous.
Dead litter the streets, but the Celts plan to help the
survivors rebuild their shattered city and nation, hand in hand.
Once they enter the compound they hear the sound of gunfire.
The head deep into the keep and come to Strongbow’s former trophy room.
Several of the Celtic artifacts are still stored there.
Just past they find the last Dragoons.
They fight and kill all but two, taking the other two captive.
With the battle finished, Fand disappears.
Kane goes after her and finds her where Strongbow held Enlil’s corpse.
She tells him that she knows what Enlil did and that she is now totally
sane. Together they go to Strongbow’s office and get information on Quayle,
the man who took over the Dragoons when Strongbow disappeared.
Here they learn about his base of command, the Northstar 40.
Morrigan is brought up and its revealed that her father was a
Dragoon, who had raped her mother. It
is also mentioned how she is working with Quayle despite her hatred for the
British, in order to gain the Fire Stones.
She is willing to see all of England wiped off the face of the globe, and
is willing to risk destroying Ireland and even all of Europe in the process.
In the mid afternoon Kane and Grant have taken quarters. They
discuss who took Enlil’s corpse and why.
Fand comes to them and gives them both a herbal drink and treats their
wounds. When she is done they head
off to separate beds.
Kane has a dream that he is Ka’in and meets Fand.
He is making love to her. When
he wakes, he is actually having sex with her.
In a rage he pulls her off and accuses her of using her psychic abilities
on him. She denies it, and leaves him.
They leave the city on a ship called the Hornblowers wraith
and travel to the Northstar 40. Things
go as they planned and the captured soldiers meet with Quayle. But instead the
man orders them to stand down and give up their weapons.
The prisoner announces that it’s a trap and he is killed. They start a
battle. Grant damages one of the
rig’s ballast tanks and plans to take out a second one.
The battle is brutal, both sides suffering heavy losses.
During the fight, Kane finds Morrigan. He gives her his coat to protect
her. At this point the Dragoons have lost the last battle.
The Cromwell disembarks from the oilrig.
Kane is forced to jump into the freezing water after it.
Fand is already on board the ship, having unsuccessfully tried to stop
it. Quayle fights Kane until he
draws his Sin-Eater. Quayle finds
Fand and is ready to kill her, and this forces Kane to drop his weapon. Both are
then taken prisoner and are locked up.
Twelve hours later they arrive at the isle of Lyonesse.
There are no beaches anywhere, nothing except an ancient staircase
leading into Kraken like figure. Quayle
forces them to go down and they do so. They
see a huge area where hideous hybrids were created, as well as the remains of
those hybrids that didn’t survive. Quayle
attacks Fand and she snaps. A
vicious fight ensues where both Quayle and Kane sustain even more wounds.
In the end Kane activates a device that Quayle is standing on, triggering
both a metamorphosis and a chain reaction.
Kane and Fand run out of the ancient building and board the Wraith and
head for home.
Back at Cerberus Kane is with Brigid when she finally wakes from her coma.