Creation- The Auditor’s Apprentice

by Frank Stonely

  ‘So what changed your mind? The professor clearly hasn’t finished his research.’

  The administrator of NASA slid a photograph across the table, ‘That’s why, Mr. President. A fourteen year old high school kid in Manchester, England, using a two-hundred dollar telescope, took that picture from his backyard. He sent it in to a TV show called The Sky At Night. The show went out last night and, since then, every smart ass with a telescope has been looking at Stevenson’s Halo, that’s the kid’s name, Stevenson.’

  The picture showed a typical night sky, but a section of the Milky-Way had been ringed to highlight a faint doughnut shaped smudge. The structure was so blurred that the president had to put on his reading glasses to make it out. ‘It’s a phantom object, Mr. President. It’s caused by the gravitational lensing of the stars in the Milky Way distorting the light from the energy wave behind it. When they start to look at it with large, ground-based telescopes, it won’t be long before others figure out what’s going on.’

  ‘Jesus Mary.’ The president whispered as he slumped back into his chair, ‘He was right… that guy was right.’

  ‘Who was right, Mr. President?’ the chief of staff asked.

  He ignored the question and looked up at Tom, ‘Do you remember in my first term, when that guy got into the Oval Office bathroom. What was his name… Damian… No, Daniel. Well, he was going on about this angel who was going to destroy the universe and we would all get burned up when this energy wave hit the Earth. Do you remember that, Tom?’

  ‘Difficult to forget it, Mr. President.’

  ‘Me too, Tom. He said he had been sent by God to save the planet. We just thought he was a religious nutcase, until he did that disappearing act. We’ve got to find him, Tom. We’ve gotta find that guy. He’s the only mother-fucker who can tell us what’s going on.’

  38

  Returning Home

  Solar Explorer’s blast-off from Launch Complex 5, was faultless, watched by an estimated three billion TV viewers around the world. Amy and Daniel saw the launch on a soundless TV screen hanging from the ceiling of a service area cafe on the M40 motorway, just north of Oxford, England. While others had clapped and cheered, they sat in silence, knowing the true significance of an event that would eventually annihilate the planet.

  The journey back to the UK had been uneventful but tiring and they had interrupted the drive back to the village after Daniel felt himself dozing off at the wheel of their hire car. There was a feeling of déjà vu about their situation. Again, Daniel’s face was peering down from the TV screen, with the rolling news banner describing him as, The terrorist who had attempted to assassinate the President of the United States. The black and white image had been recorded by an out-of-focus hotel security camera in Washington and the public were being told to call the police immediately if he was spotted. Daniel sat, rocking back and forth, like a demented patient in a psychiatric ward. He was waiting for Amy to return with the coffee, milk and sandwiches she had gone to get. It had been her idea for him to grow a beard, hiding the features that matched the mugshot circulated by the FBI. Nobody seemed concerned about his presence; smiling back, tenderly, if he glanced at them. As Amy returned to the table, her face beamed with pride at the sight of Daniel cradling their new born son.

  Following his fruitless meeting with Mr. President, they had left the hotel in Washington and driven north, picking up interstate-70, at Frederick. After seven hours of continual driving and with only one fuel stop at a service plaza on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, they crossed over into Canada. It was here, in a modest motel room at Niagara Falls, that Amy and Daniel had sex for the first time. There seemed no reason not to. They had lost contact with Anubis who was their only means of escape from the planet and waiting for Director Hedrick to find them could take decades. And that was assuming that Haamiah didn’t find them first. Spiro had spontaneously disappeared somewhere along highway two-one-nine; he had been sitting in the back of the pickup in the guise of the valet parking attendant who had retrieved the car from the hotel parking-garage. All three had sat in almost complete silence during the journey, with Daniel catching occasional glimpses of the translucent figure through the driving mirror. Then, when Amy had turned to get a bottle of water from behind Daniel’s seat, she had noticed he was no longer there. ‘Spiro’s gone,’ she said. Daniel didn’t reply, staring through the windshield at the empty highway stretching out before them.

  Having showered, Amy walked back into the bedroom naked, her arms raised, wrapping a towel around her long, brunette hair. Daniel was lying on the bed, ankles crossed, checking the TV channels for any news about his meeting with Mr. President. He took a double-take at Sally’s body as Amy walked past, her breasts and thighs glistening with droplets of water. She dropped the towel onto the floor and crawled across the bed towards him, ‘Any news about us?’ she asked.

  ‘Nothing yet,’ he said, starting to sweat as his heart began to race. Seeing the look in his eyes, Amy smiled and let Sally’s natural instincts take over.

  Sex had become an almost nightly event in the small log cabin they had rented on the outskirts of Powassan, a small Canadian town just south of Lake Nipissing. The cabin came with an acre of land and a small timber barn that Daniel converted into the workshop, where he spent his days building and restoring furniture. As time went on he became well-known as a talented carpenter, and occasionally received restoration commissions from an antique dealer in Ottawa, whose mother owned the neighbouring farm.

  It was a passing comment made by a woman in the hardware store that made Amy realise she was probably pregnant. The comment about how well she was looking was said in a way that implied something special. For some time she had been putting on weight, and only the previous night Daniel had said how sexy her belly had become. After they made love that night, she lay listening to the hooting of an owl patrolling the copse behind the barn. Then it happened. At first, she thought she was imagining the sensation. She felt a fluttering, like a butterfly trapped inside her stomach. She assumed it was just wind from the bean casserole they had had for supper. But then she felt it again and this time stronger. Something had moved independently inside her. She placed her hand on top of her belly and waited but nothing happened and, before she realised it, she had fallen asleep.

  A week went by before she screwed up the courage to tell Daniel about the baby. They had agreed that producing a doomed child was out of the question but, on occasions, when their lust for each other was overpowering, they had had unprotected sex. It was dark when Daniel returned from town that night, parking the pickup outside the barn. The warmth from the log fire and the smell of something delicious cooking in the oven greeted him as he entered the cabin. The kitchen table was laid out for dinner and Amy was sat by the fire waiting for him to return. ‘Sit down, I have something important to tell you,’ she said nervously. To her surprise, Daniel’s reaction was that of any father-to-be and, with his face beaming with pride, he pulled her up from the chair and cuddled her.

  They discussed the situation into the early hours of the morning, even briefly discussing termination. Then Daniel sat back in his chair and asked her, ‘Well, what do you want to do?’

  She thought carefully before answering. ‘After the baby’s born, I want to go home.’

  ‘Back to Creation?’

  ‘No, to Sally’s home. Let’s take Sally and our baby back to the village.’

  The reconstruction of the village’s war memorial was flawless and, unless you had been there on the day the Ground Station had exploded, you would have been none the wiser. Daniel stopped the car outside the church at the bottom of Main Street and pressed the button to open his window. It had been the hottest summer on record and the warm, dry evening air flooded into the air-conditioned interior of the car. Amy sat, eyes closed, her head lying back against the headrest, enjoying the heat of the Sun against her face. Sounds of children playing on the village green and distant bird song seeped into the car.


  Unbeknown to Daniel, Amy had been sending Christmas and birthday cards to Sally’s brother while they were away. And, when Charlie was born, she had sent a photograph that Daniel had taken in the maternity ward with the message, We’re coming home, written on the back.

  ‘What if there’s no room at the inn?’ Amy said jokingly.

  ‘Then we’ll have to sleep with the cattle in Peter’s barn.’

  ‘You’re such a fool, Daniel,’ she replied without opening her eyes. ‘You know I haven’t felt so calm and secure since we left. I guess it’s that part of Sally that’s just pleased to be home.’ She opened her eyes and slowly turned to face him, ‘I do love you. In spite of everything, you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.’ Her eyes then fell on their sleeping son, safely strapped into his reclined baby-seat, ‘And I love you too, little man,’ she said. The tranquillity of the moment was interrupted by the pub door opening and several men dressed in cricket whites tumbling out onto Main Street. Amy watched the staggering group walk passed the car, laughing and joking.

  ‘Do you remember that time when I was playing cricket, and Peter hit that six straight into my chest. It knocked the wind right out of me. I think he thought he’d killed me, I thought he’d killed me, I couldn’t stand up for ages. And then he insisted on buying me beer all afternoon. We got totally pissed.’

  Amy’s eyes followed the group as they took the shortcut through the church graveyard back to the cricket pavilion. She sighed and closed her eyes again.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘John. John the postman… he should have been with them. Another life snuffed out because of me.’

  ‘Don’t be stupid! You had nothing to do with it.’

  ‘But, if I’d stayed in Creation… he’d still be playing cricket and posting letters.’

  ‘But if you’d stayed in Creation, we wouldn’t have this little fella,’ Daniel said, reaching back to stroke the back of Charlie’s hand.

  Amy opened her eyes as the pub door closed with its characteristic clatter. A teenage boy was loafing up Main Street, heading towards the village shop. She tapped Daniel’s knee.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Look, walking to the shop. That must be Sally’s brother. Do you think Tanka’s here?’

  ‘There’s only one way to find out,’ Daniel said, opening the car door and sliding out. ‘You stay here with Charlie, and I’ll go and have a look.’ Amy watched as he crossed the road and disappeared into the pub.

  It had been a hot afternoon and the back lobby door was wedged open to let cool air from the beer garden into the bar. Standing with his arms folded, cradling a half-empty pint of bitter, was Peter, the farmer, his cricket whites soiled with grass stains. He stood watching the Ashes cricket match being played at Lords on the bar’s television, oblivious of Daniel’s arrival. The chinking of glass made Daniel turn as Mrs. Perkins entered, carrying a tray of empty beer glasses. As she slid it onto the counter, she caught sight of him and smiled, saying, ‘I’ve been expecting you.’ Her smile seemed warm and genuine. She walked up to the stunned Daniel and, taking his hand, led him into the snug, calling out, ‘I’m in here if anybody wants me, Peter.’

  ‘Okay, Mrs. P,’ he replied, without taking his eyes away from the match.

  They sat down opposite each other, in the same seats they had used on the night of Daniel’s arrival. Mrs. Perkins smiled tenderly, ‘Is the baby here? I can’t wait to see him. I’ve kept every card that Sally sent us.’

  ‘What in Creation’s going on, Tanka? I watched you die. I watched you shoot Mrs. Perkins.’

  ‘And now she’s back, thanks to Director Hedrick.’ Mrs. Perkins sat up in her chair, ‘Now, tell me about the baby.’

  ‘You mean… you’ve been back to Creation?’

  ‘Oh yes! I’ve been back, courtesy of the angel Rampel. But the baby-’

  ‘Later! I wanna know what happened!’

  ‘It was simple. Hedrick gave me the option of either helping Amy or spending eternity in Purgatory… some choice eh?’

  ‘How did you get back?’

  ‘That was weird. One minute I’m with Hedrick, the next I’m back in this body… just as though nothing had happened. Sergeant Rogers is here too. I saw him in the village shop yesterday.’

  ‘Haamiah?’

  ‘No, she doesn’t know about it.’

  ‘That’s not possible. She knows everything that’s going on.’

  ‘I’m not so sure. On our way back from Mohammed’s lab, Abraxas appeared. Hedrick led him away, so I couldn’t hear what was being said, but… they were up to something.’

  ‘Maybe that’s how he found out we were coming back to the village?’

  ‘No, Hedrick had another source for that; he sent a ghost to spy on you.’

  Daniel laughed, ‘You mean, Spiro? He wasn’t spying on us! Well, not in the true sense of the word. If it hadn’t been for him, I’d probably be either dead or locked up somewhere. Anyway, Spiro left us before we’d decided to come back. Is Anubis here?’

  ‘They’ve been here almost a year, working on the drone.’

  ‘I take it, they, is the Gatekeeper.’

  ‘Yes, they’re up at the Ground Station. Anubis had it rebuilt while he was away. They’ve been working day and night to get the new drone finished.’

  Daniel looked directly into her eyes, ‘You can’t play both sides anymore, Tanka. Who’s it gonna be, Hedrick or Anubis?’’

  ‘I’m on the side that can get me off this planet before it’s extracted.’

  ‘Yeah, we all want that. Look, Haamiah promised twenty-four hours. And according to Mo the extraction takes at least two Earth years. We’ve still got plenty of time.’

  ‘The Gatekeeper says it’s already started.’

  ‘Nah, you’ve got that wrong,’ Daniel said, half laughing.

  ‘It’s true. There was a documentary about Stevenson’s halo on the TV last week.’

  ‘Yes, it was in the newspapers, some sort of space anomaly. You think that’s an extraction wave?’

  ‘It’d make sense. None of us have seen one from this side before.’

  ‘Why would Haamiah break her pledge to Hedrick?’

  Tanka leant forward and glancing at the door, spoke in a whisper, ‘This is going to sound ridiculous.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘Yesterday, I overheard Anubis and the Gatekeeper. They were in the bar and I was in the back lobby, I’d been changing over the beer barrels. I caught the words those-on-high, so I stopped and listened. They were talking about some revolution in Heaven that Anubis had been involved in. The weird thing was that the Gatekeeper kept calling him, Lucifer… that’s an angel’s name. Anubis said his changes to the drone code would’ve fucked Those-on-High for good, if you and Amy hadn’t got involved. He said you’d screwed up his plans for revenge and he was fucked if he was going to end up like Jean-Marie.’

  ‘Who are, John and Mary?’

  ‘No, Jean-Marie. He’s the head waiter at the Directors’ Club restaurant. He was given the job by Hedrick as some sort of punishment.’

  ‘So Hedrick knew about this all along?’

  ‘No. We’re talking Heaven here, not Creation. It sounded like Rampel was in cahoots with Anubis or, Lucifer, if that’s his name.’

  ‘Are you saying Anubis is an angel?’

  ‘I told you it sounded ridiculous.’

  ‘And Rampel triggered the extraction?’

  ‘That’s what the Gatekeeper thinks.’

  ‘Why do that if he’s still loyal to Anubis?’

  ‘I guess it’s a gamble. If the plan to implode the Sun works he kills two birds with one stone. He saves Anubis, and covers up their tracks.’

  ‘While I’ve got the encryption key, there’s only one place they’ll be going… back to Creation,’ Daniel smirked as he spoke. ‘What else was said?’

  ‘That was it. Peter came stomping into the bar and they clammed up.’

  ‘Did you ask them about it late
r?’

  ‘No… I’m keeping my head down. Anubis has promised me another blue planet, with another Mrs. Perkins… and I’ll settle for that.’

  ‘And you believe him?’

  ‘As much as you believe he’ll help Amy get back to Creation.’

  Daniel got up and made for the door. ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘The Ground Station.’

  ‘Daniel! Not a word about this. Anubis is ruthless, if he thinks you know the truth, he’ll kill you… and your new little family.’

  39

  Hell On Earth

  Amy was sat in the rear of the car, cradling Charlie to her breast. He had woken with a hungry whimper and was now suckling rhythmically, his eyes staring intently into Sally’s face. She smiled down at him, wiping away the foam of milk from around his lips as she studied his face. Like all mothers, she thought her baby was the most beautiful child in the world and yet, she couldn’t help a tinge of disappointment. His pink face was round, flat, without a muzzle and naked of the fur that should have covered it. Instead of the sparkling emerald green, his eyes were a pale blue. His ears lay flat against the side of his head, rather than standing erect, instinctively twitching at every sound. And, of course, he had no tail. But the question that never left her mind was, did this little body contain creationist essence or, was it merely a collection of human cells?

  Charlie had fallen asleep, his lips giving an occasional suck. The serenity of the moment was shattered as Daniel came running out of the pub, heading back to the car. He pulled open the driver’s door and slumped into the seat. Amy looked across at him, ‘What’s happened?’

  Daniel stared at her through the driving mirror and said, ‘They’re extracting the universe!’

  ‘What! No… it’s not possible. Haamiah promised she’d wait.’

  ‘It’s true, Amy. Tanka overheard Orion talking to Anubis.’