Dante Book IV Canto I Recap

 Last Book Finale

Centre of Hell

Scene II

Dante was released from the hard bedding and place in a cell. It was then he had a better view of the place he was placed in. It was a lab of electronic consoles lined up in a row with the huge servers at the rear. There were three beddings that where Dante had lain. He saw the other beddings were empty but he was unsure of the detention cells. His was rather small considering it was empty but he could do small paces inside it. He counted four others besides the General. The one-armed was the General and a guard.

“Sir, I don’t know what is happening? I can’t stop the hacking.” The aide was frantic to find the kill switch.

“Pull the plug.” The General called out. The server was turned off abruptly. The aide gave out a sigh and he was rewarded by the shot in the head. The General then turned to look at Dante. He had removed his mask and stared at Dante.

“You saw me done murder. It was not pre-mediated but it was a kill. And that made me a sinner. An unforgiving sin. Where will I end up?” The General looked at Dante. “Was it the Seventh Circle where the murderers are punished? I should end up in Circle Four to fight for my soul. I am at war with this uniform on. It’s a war I am in with the rank of General. In my command are the thousands and their death will be on my conscience if I do hold one. I don’t as I have read Dante’s Hell. We are all sinners and to Hell, we will end after our life is extinguished.”

“Where will you end up, Dante? You who is the pacifist and yet to be dead.” The General looked at Dante.

“Bormant, I ----meant General, please hear me out. You are --- a genius but what you are doing here is not right.” Dante tried to find the conversation piece with others. “Why are you obsessed with Dante’s inferno? It was a ----”

“A poem to you and many others but over the generations, no one knew why he wrote it. Why the layers of descriptions?” The General asked. “Dante the Poet wrote it while in political exile from Florence and he used it to express his views then. He had given bad endings for his enemies. The literary mode of assassination.”

“Is that why you adopted his methods in programming to create the version of Hell for your ---enemies?” Dante asked. “Now I recalled you of your home city. You were part of Florence.”

“I was banished soon after the debacle on Dante’s and I left for the other side of the world. I made my name and was given the ranked of General. My works were favored by them, and not ostracised by my own home.”

“Is that your form of vengeance?” Dante asked.

“Yes, and Bocca was one of my spies. He was good but ended up dead. He told me of you seeing him in the forest, and how much you loved poems. I had you checked and here you are.”

“How did you find me?”

“It was simple. I had your squad assigned to the forest; I have spies among your officers, and the rest was to set for you to take the journey into Hell. The last part was we found you unconscious and had you moved here. It was planned by myself. But I could not figure out the Virgil part.”

“You don’t have to be for long,” Dante told the General. “Virgil is a figment of my imagination. When I was younger, I used to have nightmares and Virgil was my Angel to rescue me. It helped me to understand my issues.”

“As you held onto your practice as a preacher. I read of your unorthodox methods; was it hypnosis---” The General was cut off.

“No, it was transcendental therapy. It involved real and alternative medicine for those who are affected by medical ailments like mine. I was becoming paranoid with my readings that I imagined issues. I had to be treated to have an Angel inside me. Virgil was mine.”

“It was experimental. It was ---” The General was impressed but disbelieving.

“Place aside like the cloning process. It’s the future but are we there yet? No, we are not. As a poet, I can tell you we have visions of the future. As a preacher, we can only tell you of the past. I am both and stand-alone version.”

“I applaud you, Dante. You amazed me which was why I had you selected.” The General laughed. “Do you recall the last passages of Inferno? The description of the Devil.”

“Satan is bound in the ice to his mid-point and has three faces --- a red one, a yellow one, and the black one. In each of his three mouths, he chews a sinner. Virgil explains that Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Christ, is the one in the middle and suffering most, and that the other two are Brutus and Cassius, who betrayed Caesar.” (https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/d/the-divine-comedy-inferno/summary-and-analysis/canto-xxxiv)

“Well, I do mimic the Devil not only in his namesake but his described features. Where we stand in, it’s a high mountain covered with snow and ice; too icy for any living being to survive outside but in here, it’s warm like the bosom of the mother. Like the Devil, I wore a few masks; the red which you have seen, that is for my works here. I called it my Devil’s workshop expression.”

“The Yellow I wore for my meet with the other imbecile of my peers. It’s my cautionary expression that I am watching them on their contribution. It’s like a form of saying you are mine to command.”

“The Black I reserved for it they failed I will terminate them. They will be punished like the sinners in Hell; one to their level of failure. I do have the perfect enactment in the dungeons below us. What you see here is the wholesome version. The few before you never make it out and will suffer their penance in here.”

General Doctor Bormant pointed to his head.

“The most powerful weapon is the mind. And if you destroy there, that person is gone.” The General smiled. “You however defied my weapon efficiency and that makes it ineffective. Thus, for it to be efficient, I will have to study your so call transcendental therapy. Imagine it was sanctioned by a poet cum preacher, that amazes me. How far did you desecrate the creation of God with your imaginative mind?”

“Not as far as you with the Devil’s lair?” Dante hit back.

“I am the Devil, Dante. This is my lair.” The General chuckled. “You will be my demon soon.”

It was then the orb appeared and shot the General with the sonar blast. The blast took down the General and then the others.

“Hello, Dante. It’s me, Virgil.” The orb greeted Dante. “Let me get the lock open.”

Once freed, Dante asked the orb how did it get there.

“I sneaked in when they brought you in soon after. It took me some time for the security was tight but at times, I overrode the controls. The program was simpler than the one the Creator did for me. I had my interference inside but kept it out of the log audit. I could remote into the server by wireless connections. Then it was to remain hidden here. No one looked up. I hid on the ceiling far from their sights. There are no surveillance tools here in the cell.”

“Was that how you hack the system?” Dante had to ask.

“Yes, and now we are breaking out. I have to tell you that we are in a tight spot though. We are in Cocytus or better known as the Purgatory.”

“Purgatory? Am I mad?” Dante sighed. “Is this the level of his demented mind?”

“I am afraid it’s and Purgatory is not an easy task.” The Orb reminded Dante. “Get yourself something decent to wear. Where we are going, it won’t be like Hell but worse.”

Dante changed into the guard’s uniform and took the blaster with him. He went to the exit with the orb hovering in mid-air.

“I have studied the schematics of the place. There are certain openings like vents to allow in the fresh air every hour in rotation and that will be our exit point. If we missed our exit point, it will be a wait of three hours before it will open again. The nearest is ahead but take note the air vent will remain open for twenty-two seconds only. We have or rather you have to be fast.”

Dante made it to the vent, and it was circular in design with three flaps that will swing-out. Each vent measured three feet and in between the flaps was a width of eight inches.

“I can’t squeeze through there. It’s too small.” Dante told the orb.

“I know and you need to take out the middle flap. It will give you enough space to move.” The orb told Dante. “Use your blaster when it open.”

The flaps opened then and Dante took his shot without thinking. He blasted the middle flap and it gave him a wider space to move. He then rushed towards it and saw that the vent was above him in height. He had to jump and get hold of the lower flap. It was still holding but when he climbed, it was moving too close. He pulled himself up racing against the flap closing. He was not to make it and relaxed his hold.

The orb hit out the sonar blast that disrupted the flap controller. The flaps remained half shut but the controller had sent the alarm to the main server.

“Get out now.” The orb voiced out. Dante pulled himself up and passed the flap to see before he was a steep drop to the bottom.

“Move it. Drop down now.” The orb told him. Dante moved his body up and over before he went down head first, he was expecting to drop deep but his fall was cushioned by something hard. He felt the hardness and saw it was vibrating.

“It’s an extension like a wing that will vibrate to shake off the excess ice.” The orb voiced to Dante. “Hang on when it vibrates.”

Dante felt himself sliding and grabbed out with his fingers to hold onto anything solid. It was only ice and snow and the grip on the ice was painful. He felt himself sliding to the side and then it stopped.

“Orb, are you at my butt?” Dante felt the obstacle then between his legs. He did not get any reply but then the area he was on had stopped. Dante was to crouch up when the orb told him to grab hold of it. He did so and found himself pushed off the wing on the slippery icy surface. He was descending fast and thought that end was near. The orb was pushing hard at its hovering power but Dante was heavy. It was compensating with its power source and the fall was there.

Dante felt the descent slowing and finally, he was given the command.

“Release now.” Dante did as he was told. His fall was short and landed on the snow there.

He was on firm ground.

He was alive.

And the orb fell next to him.

It was flickering in the light.

“Damn!” Dante cursed. He looked up and saw the mountain he had fallen from. It was a huge mountain with a silvery surface. “It’s a metallic structure.”