Hell on earth.

Dr. 'Seven' Carmichael had only seen it once before... and, oddly enough, it looked nothing like this.

Still, if his experiences as an agent of the Prometheus Initiative had taught him anything, it was that a cool head in a hot situation was a lifesaver. And so, knowing this, he keeps running.

In his pocket, his cellphone chirps. Pulling out his Bluetooth earpiece, he shoves it into his ear. "Talk to me."

"Carmichael, it's Li."

"What's the good word, Bai-baby?"

The voice on the other end sighs heavily but, knowing the severity of the situation, doesn't press the matter. "Scooter has managed to hack into the Shoemaker database. This 'divine' we're hunting is a boy named Emmanuel Nwanjoku."

Seven sniggers. "'God with us,'" he says. "How apropos..."

"Beg your pardon?"

"Emmanuel - it means 'God with us'. C'mon, Bai, where were you during Religion 101?"

"Apparently sleeping," Bai snaps back. "At any rate, we've got a whole file on him here..."

"Key words, baby," Seven says, fighting against a mass of people on fire. "Just the basics."

"Alright..." She inhales deeply on the other line and Seven knows she's biting her lower lip in that sexy way she does when she's studying something intently. "Nineteen years of age. Nigerian. Illegal immigrant into Italy rerouted to an acceptance camp on Lampedusa."

"Yeah, 'acceptance,' my ass..."

"...nothing but a Bible to his name. Oh, here's something... three days after admittance into the camp, he was extradited to the States upon the discovery of a rare genetic disorder..."

"They got a name for it?"

"None that I can see..."

"Fair enough," Seven says. "Where was he sent?"

"I'll give you two guesses, but you'll only need one..."

"Shoemaker..."

"Bingo."

"Any word on that front yet?"

"We've located his laboratory, but..."

"But what, Li? C'mon, baby, don't fail me now!"

"...it's exactly one-half mile below the epi-center."

"Which means to get to Shoemaker, I have to go through 'God with us'..."

"It would appear so."

"What's my ETA on foot?" Seven says, looking around at the cityscape around him. In all honesty, he could've been traveling around in circles for the past half-hour. All these burning buildings look the same...

"Bouncing a signal off your GPS," Li says, "under normal conditions, it'd be about twenty minutes east-by-northeast."

"Normal conditions," Seven says, rolling his eyes. "Hell, I'd take LA traffic over this anyday..."

"No joke."

"Alright, Bai-baby," Seven says, adjusting his earpiece, "here's the plan. Tell Scooter to keep pulling up whatever he can find on what Shoemaker was doing. Have him relay anything pertinent directly to me. As for you... put down where you can and approach with extreme caution. I know you're field trained and I have a feeling I'll need back-up on this one."

"But..."

"No 'buts,' baby," he says, pausing briefly to run a hand through his ash-filled hair. "I'll need all the manpower I can get."

"Understood." He can tell by her voice that she's not happy... but he really can't care less. "Li out."

"And now," Seven mutters to himself, "the game begins..."